Performance of double skin composite construction with shear connectors; state-of-the-art review

Concrete-Steel-Sandwich composite or double-skin composite constructions consist of external thin steel plates sandwiching in the middle with a concrete slab. Mechanical connectors allow steel and concrete slabs to work as a single unit. The connector behavior is highly non-linear and implies various complex mechanisms; design resistance and stiffness of composite sections depend on the shear connection behavior. The materials of the concrete slab also play a prime role in giving an efficient structural composite system. This paper provides essential information about the select types of shear connectors engaged in composite structures such as head stud, J-hook, L-shape, C-Channel, and X-shape, which are studied in different techniques and diverse types of concrete materials like Normal- Weight -Concrete, Light- Weight- Concrete, Ultra-High Performance-Concrete with/without steel fiber reinforcement, under a different type of load. A plentiful of numerical and experimental studies reported in the literature are summarized.