This paper presents the experimental and numerical investigation on modelling of interface of steel sheet and concrete in composite slab. A simple pull-out test is carried out and the same is simulated in general purpose finite element program ABAQUS/Standard, which has cohesive elements in its library of special purpose elements. Concrete cracking is modelled as smeared type and steel plasticity is considered. Though it is very limited study on complicated contact problem of interface modelling, results indicate that it is possible to simulate the steel concrete interface with cohesive elements defining appropriate penalty stiffness and damage.

Keywords: Interface modelling, Cohesive elements, Pull-out test, Smeared crack concrete, Penalty stiffness.