# Experimental Study of Perfobond Rib Shear Connector under Lateral Force
## 6 Conclusions  
This study carries full-scale tests on Perfobond rib shear connectors to study the influences of rib thickness, rib holes diameter, reinforcement bar diameter, and transverse forces on performance shear connectors' performance. Upon analyzing the test data, conclusions are made as below:  
1. Rib hole diameter has an influence on the overall resistance of the shear connection. However, the influence depends on the diameter of the reinforcement bars. For example, when the rib hole diameter increases from 60 mm to 75 mm, the influence is obvious on the test specimens with 16 mm diameter reinforcement bars. However,  
Figure 27: Reinforcement bars failures of the BH4 specimen after the test.  
Figure 26: Concrete dowel failures of the BH3 specimen after the test: (**a**) Concrete dowel failures of the BH3-1 specimen; (**b**) Concrete dowel failures of the BH3-2 specimen.  
the same amount of increase in rib hole diameter results in no obvious change in the bond-slip relationship on the specimens with 20 mm diameter reinforcement bars.
* A larger rib holes diameter, however, can increase the resistance of the shear connection and, on the other hand, also decreases the strength of the rib plate and causes failure of the shear connection, as in BH-10 and BH-11 specimens.
* The reinforcement bar diameter also has an influence on the resistance of the shear connection. However, the influence also depends on the rib holes. If the rib holes are large enough, the concrete dowel failure will dominate and the reinforcement bars would not contribute much to the overall shear resistance.
* A thicker rib thickness would increase the resistance of the shear connection; however, the increase in the resistance is not as efficient as other factors because the main source of shear resistance comes from the concrete and reinforcement dowel.
* The existence of transverse pretension stress accelerated the cracking of concrete, leading to the strength and stiffness of concrete, perforated plate, and reinforcing rebars being unable to exert their effect fully. As a result, the shear capacity of Perfobond shear connectors was reduced by about 10%. In addition, the constraint effect of transverse stress improved the strength and stiffness of concrete and delayed the concrete cracking, bringing the strength and stiffness of concrete, perforated plate, and reinforcing rebars into full play, and resulting in a significant improvement (20%) in the shear capacity of Perfobond shear connectors.  
Data curation, Q.H., Z.A., X.W. ([PERSON]), Y.W. and Z.Z.; Writing--original draft, X.W. ([PERSON]); Writing--review & editing, Z.A. and G.L. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This research received no external funding.  
Data Availability Statement: Data available in a publicly accessible repository.  
The authors would like to thank [PERSON], [PERSON], and [PERSON] for the help during the tests and report preparation, and [PERSON], [PERSON], and [PERSON] for the support and suggestions throughout this project.  
The authors declare no conflict of interest.