Simulation of a SCSC plate with a spring framework model including the effects of inelastic slip

The research into an innovative steel-concrete-steel composite (SCSC) plate presented here is being carried out in the Steel Structures Research Unit of the Institute of Structural Engineering at TU Wien. The aim of the research is to use the SCSC plate for single-track, short-span railway bridges in Austria. The SCSC plate is designed to be a loadbearing structure in the transverse direction, transferring the loads to the main steel girders of the bridge cross-section. An engineering model will be presented in this paper to reproduce the results of the ABAQUS finite element analysis software [1]. Using this simple framework model, which includes springs, it is possible to consider cyclic loading and inelastic slip, too. This results in an increase in the global vertical displacements and a change to the internal forces, which are discussed in the paper.