Modern design, construction and maintenance of composite steelconcrete structures: Australian experiences

Modern design, construction innovation and maintenance issues have been extensively utilised for composite steel-concrete building structures in Australia. This paper provides an overview of the design codes, innovative construction applications and maintenance issues for steel-concrete composite members in Australia. The paper initially provides an overview of the various codes of practice for steel-concrete composite members in Australia. In identifying construction innovation significant projects to adopt composite construction techniques are considered. Many of these projects have found that the national codes of practice have been lacking in guidance. This has thus been the focal point for much of the research into the area of steel-concrete composite members over the last two decades. The paper concludes with research that is currently being carried out which considers materials and solutions in composite structural forms which promote the concepts of sustainability and will inevitably be prominent in improved maintenance of steel structures in the future.