Fatigue Tests on Steel–Concrete Composite Beams

Subjected to Sagging Moments

Ayman El-Zohairy, A.M.ASCE 1; Hani Salim, M.ASCE 2; and Aaron Saucier 3
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Abstract: Current shear stud fatigue capacity recommended for design of shear connectors is based on experimental data from push-out
tests, and there is a need to experimentally evaluate the fatigue performance of shear connectors in steel-concrete composite beams. Therefore,
this paper presents the results of four composite beams tested under fatigue with different degrees of shear connection. The fatigue testing was
carried out to a million cycles under bending with two different amplitudes. The residual strength of steel-concrete composite beams was
evaluated by performing static tests until failure after the completion of the fatigue tests for each of the specimens. The testing measurements
included midspan deflection, slippage between the steel beam and concrete deck, shear connector strains, and strains in the concrete deck and
bottom steel flange. Based on the experimental results, degrees of the shear connection between the steel beam and the concrete deck played a
major role in controlling the longitudinal fatigue cracks in the concrete deck. The residual deflection and plastic slippage increased as the
fatigue of cycles increased. This is caused by the damage in the concrete deck that developed around the shear studs, which led to a reduction
in the composite stiffness. The shear connectors’ strain ranges gradually increased due to the accumulation of damage as the number of cycles
increased. Based on the results of this paper, it is concluded that the current shear stud fatigue design curve predicts a lower fatigue life for the
shear connectors. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)ST.1943-541X.0002326. © 2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
Author keywords: Steel-concrete composite beams; Experimental tests; Fatigue; Shear connectors; Deflection; Residual strength;
Slippage.

Introduction
Under service loads, steel-concrete composite bridge super-
structures may experience fatigue damage due to cyclic loads.
Therefore, fatigue testing is critical to evaluate existing design
methods. Push-out tests have been used by many researchers to
study the fatigue performance of shear connectors. Slutter and
Fisher (1966) performed the first fatigue tests on shear studs,
and they concluded that fatigue failure occurred in the weld zone
connecting the stud to the steel flange. Current design procedures
were developed using the push-out testing results of Slutter and
Fisher (1966) and Johnson (2000).
Semiempirical analytical procedures were developed by
Hanswille et al. (2007) and Dogan and Roberts (2012) to predict
the reduced fatigue life and strength of shear connectors subjected
to unidirectional cyclic loading. According to Liu and Roeck
(2009), stud spacing greatly affects the shear force developed in
shear connectors, whereas concrete modulus effects are relatively
small. Results from push-out tests by Ovuoba and Prinz (2016) sug-
gested a fatigue endurance limit of 44.8 MPa, which is similar to
the current AASHTO value of 48.3 MPa.
Fatigue testing performed by Richard Yen et al. (1997) con-
cluded that the failure of composite beams was due to the formation
1
Adjunct Instructor, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211-2200.
2 The survey of the previous literature showed that most detailed
Professor, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Univ. of
Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211-2200 (corresponding author). Email:
SalimH@mail.missouri.edu
3
Postdoctororal, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211-2200.
Note. This manuscript was submitted on April 17, 2018; approved on
November 7, 2018; published online on February 27, 2019. Discussion per-
iod open until July 27, 2019; separate discussions must be submitted for
individual papers. This paper is part of the Journal of Structural Engineer-
ing, © ASCE, ISSN 0733-9445.
and propagation of fatigue cracks in the concrete deck. Cyclic load-
ing causes the deflection of the composite beams to increase due to
incremental slippage between the steel beam and concrete deck
(Taplin and Grundy 2000). Under a large number of cycles, the frac-
ture of the shear connectors and the concrete damage around the
shear connectors caused the failure of the composite beams in
tests performed by Hanswille et al. (2009). The fatigue failure of
simply supported composite beams first occurs at the end shear con-
nector and spreads in a proper order (Li et al. 2015). Wang et al.
(2014) and Dai and Richard Liew (2010) demonstrated that the shear
stress range and the upper limit of the applied fatigue load signifi-
cantly affected the fatigue performance of concrete-steel composite
beams. The upper limit of the applied fatigue load significantly
affected the fatigue performance of the shear connectors when the
load upper limit was much larger than the fatigue load range.
Sjaarda et al. (2017) experimentally evaluated the fatigue re-
sponse and failure of welded shear studs in precast composite
beams. The research provides valuable fatigue test data for precast
and cast-in-place composite beams. The results showed that shear
studs in beams with precast slabs exhibited fatigue performance
similar to those in beams with cast-in-place slabs. Steel-concrete
composite beams with different degrees of shear connection were
investigated by Wang et al. (2018). The results of the research
showed that all mechanical properties of the composite beams under
fatigue loads decreased as the degree of shear connection decreased.
studies of fatigue behavior of shear connectors were done using
push-out tests and addressed a lack of existing experimental data
based on steel-concrete composite beams. Push-out tests cannot
fully represent the actual tensile or compressive stresses in the con-
crete deck and the steel beam that affect the fatigue behavior of the
shear connectors, steel beams, and concrete decks. Current shear
stud fatigue capacity recommended for design of shear connectors,
such as AASHTO, is based on the experimental data from push-out

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 Table 1. Summary of the tested specimens
Fatigue load (kN)
Percentage of design
Specimen Composite level Test method Pmax Pmin Range Δτ (MPa) N fatigue lifea
RSB-1 Full (100%) Static only — — — — —
FSB-2 Full (100%) Fatigue þ static 160.1 13.3 146.8 77.0 1,000,000 100
FSB-3 Full (100%) Fatigue þ static 177.9 13.3 164.6 87.4 1,000,000 180
FSB-4 Partial (60%) Fatigue þ static 160.1 13.3 146.8 132.2 1,000,000 2,850
Note: Δτ = shear stress range; and N = number of cycles.
a
Based on AASHTO design S-N curve for shear stud fatigue capacity.
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Fig. 1. Details of the tested specimens: (a) cross-section; and (b) elevations showing shear connectors’ arrangements. Dimensions in millimeters.

tests, and there is a need to experimentally evaluate the fatigue
performance of shear connectors in composite beams. In addition,
the effect of predamage due to fatigue loading on both the ultimate
and serviceability limit states of composite beams is questionable
(Hanswille and Porsch 2008). Therefore, this paper adds valuable
fatigue test data for shear studs performed on large-scale com-
posite beam tests. The residual strength of steel-concrete composite
beams was evaluated by performing static tests until failure after the
completion of the fatigue tests for each of the specimens.
Experimental Program
the effect of predamage due to fatigue loading on both the ultimate
and serviceability limit states of composite beams, the number of
cycles was kept constant at the predicted one million cycles. Details
of the tested specimens, material properties, test setup and loading
procedures, and instrumentation are described next.
Details of the Tested Specimens
Fig. 1 shows schematic details of the tested specimens. For all
tested specimens, the overall length was 4,572 mm, and the clear

To investigate the fatigue performance and residual strength of steel- Table 2. Details of the shear connectors and steel reinforcement
concrete composite beams under constant fatigue loading, four
Shear connectors Reinforcing bars
steel-concrete composite beam specimens were tested (Table 1). spacing (mm) spacing (mm)
The specimens with full-shear connection and the associated applied
fatigue loads were designed according to the fatigue limit state of Connection Longitudinal Transverse Longitudinal
Specimen device spacing spacing bars Stirrup
AASHTO LRFD. The specimen with a partial shear connection was
designed using 60% of the required studs for full-composite require- RSB-1 Stud 122.2 63.5 215.9 122.2
ments. The design fatigue load was predicted to fail at one million FSB-2 Stud 122.2 63.5 215.9 122.2
cycles; thus, all specimens were designed to undergo the same num- FSB-3 Stud 122.2 63.5 215.9 122.2
FSB-4 Stud 209.5 63.5 215.9 104.8
ber of cycles. In addition, for comparative purposes, to investigate

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 Table 3. Summary of the materials properties rows with variable longitudinal spacings, as described in Fig. 1
Component Property Value and summarized in Table 2. Bearing and transverse stiffeners were
used at supports and loading points. Bearing steel plates were also
Reinforcing bars f y (MPa) 294.2
used between the concrete deck and spreader beam to reduce con-
fu (MPa) 402.5
Es (GPa) 207.8
crete stress concentration at the loading points.
Concrete f c0 (MPa) 32.4
Steel beam (Grade A992)a f y (MPa) 345
fu (MPa) 450 Material Properties
Es (GPa) 204
Shear connectorsa f y (MPa) 351.6 Normal-weight concrete was used to cast all specimens. For each
fu (MPa) 448.2 specimen, concrete cylinders of 100 × 200 mm were tested, and
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Es (GPa)
a was 32.4 MPa. Tension tests on the steel rebars were performed
DeLong’s Inc. (Jefferson, Missouri).
span between supports was 4,419.6 mm. The concrete deck was
101.6 mm thick and 1,143 mm wide. The concrete decks were
reinforced in the transverse and longitudinal directions using
10-mm-diameter deformed bars, as shown in Table 2. Concrete
confinement around the shear connectors was provided by trans-
verse rebars to prevent longitudinal shear failure and concrete
splitting. Shear connectors with a diameter and height of 15.875
and 81 mm, respectively, were welded to the steel flange in two
206.5 the average nominal compressive strength of the concrete cylinders
following the ASTM A370 (ASTM 2013) standard, and the
mechanical properties of the steel materials are listed in Table 3.
Test Setup and Loading Procedures
For fatigue testing, four-point loading was used with a spacing be-
tween the loading points of 1,372 mm. Fig. 2(a) shows a schematic
of the loading setup, and Fig. 2(b) shows the spreader beam and
roller support at the specimen end. The tests were conducted in
two stages, as illustrated in Fig. 2(c), where the fatigue test was

Load
Spreader beam

LVDT-2 LVDT-3

LVDT-1

(a)

LVDT-3
Loading points

Concrete strain gage

(b)
Load Fatigue test Static test
Pmax Failure

Pmin

Stage 1 Stage 2
Time
(c)

Fig. 2. Test setup: (a) schematic view of the fatigue tests; (b) spreader beam showing loading points and support; and (c) loading stages for the fatigue
specimens. Dimensions in millimeters.

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LVDT
String pot
(LVDT-1)
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Fig. 3. Static test setup showing the concentrated load at midspan over
the steel beam.
performed in Stage 1 at 4.0 Hz, and the subsequent final static load-
ing test was performed in Stage 2. The static tests were carried out
under a one-point load to monitor the residual behavior of the
fatigue specimens, as shown in Fig. 3. The reference specimen
(RSB-1) was tested to failure under static loads to evaluate the
residual behavior of the fatigue specimens.
Instrumentation
Three linear variable differential transformers (LVDTs) were used
to measure deformations: one LVDT was to measure the vertical
deflection at midspan, and two LVDTs at each end of the beam
were used to measure slippage of the concrete deck in relation to
the steel beam (Fig. 3). Ten strain gauges were installed on various
parts of each specimen, as shown in Fig. 4. Four shear connectors at
Specimens with full shear connection
Specimen with partial shear connection
Strain gage Strain gage
Strain gages at either side of the foot of one of the shear connectors
Fig. 4. Arrangements of strain gauges. Dimensions in millimeters.
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different locations were instrumented using strain gauges. To mon-
itor compressive and tensile strains in the shear connector, strain
gauges were attached to either side of the foot of the connectors.
In addition, strains were measured in the bottom flanges of the steel
beams and the concrete decks at midspans.
Fatigue Test Observations and Discussion
The fatigue response of the specimens was studied by monitoring
the fatigue cracks in the concrete decks, the residual deflections, the
plastic slippages between the concrete deck and the steel beam, and
the cyclic strains in different components of the composite section.
The results of each are presented next.
Stiffness Response and Cyclic Deflection
During fatigue testing, it was observed that cracks initiated and
propagated in the concrete deck. Because the composite section
was designed such that the neutral axis is below the concrete deck,
no cracks were expected to initiate on the surface of the concrete
deck under such low load levels. However, when the number of
cycles went beyond 50,000, minor cracks were observed on the
top and side surfaces of the concrete deck. As the number of cycles
increased, additional cracks formed, and the size of cracks grew, as
illustrated in Fig. 5, which shows that fatigue cracks were mostly
present in the shear span regions. For specimens with the full shear
connection, transverse cracks were formed and propagated as the
number of load cycles increased, whereas longitudinal cracks were
formed and propagated between rows of the shear connectors
through the shear span regions in the specimen with the partial
shear connection. This means that the degree of shear connection
played a major role in controlling the longitudinal fatigue cracks in
the concrete deck. Compared to the results of Richard Yen et al.
(1997) and Oehlers (1989), where longitudinal splitting occurred
in the concrete deck under fatigue, no failure in the concrete deck
was observed in specimens presented in this paper. This can be
attributed to the confinement provided by sufficient longitudinal
and transverse reinforcement in the concrete deck, which prevented
longitudinal splitting of the concrete deck.
The cyclic load-deflection behavior for specimens FSB-3 and
FSB-4 and the residual deflection of the fatigue specimens are
presented in Fig. 6. Initial fatigue crack propagation and the for-
mation of additional fatigue cracks resulted in increasing residual
deformations. As the number of load cycles increased, the damage
in the concrete around the shear connectors led to a decrease in
the composite stiffness, resulting in an increase in the residual de-
flection. This growth in the residual deflection increased with the
increase in the fatigue load range. In addition, the specimen with
partial shear connection demonstrated a rapid increase in the
residual midspan deflection in the early stages of the fatigue test.
Concrete-to-Steel Slippage
The plastic cyclic slippage, the residual slippage at the interface
between the steel flange and concrete deck, for the fatigued spec-
imens is illustrated in Fig. 7, which shows that the specimen with
partial shear connection demonstrated the highest level of such slip-
page. This incremental slippage can be attributed to the damage in
the steel-concrete shear connection under fatigue loading, which
accumulated as the number of load cycles increased (Taplin and
Grundy 2000). Most of this damage occurred in the early fatigue
life of the specimen with the partial shear connection.
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Fig. 5. Crack formation and distribution in the concrete flanges during the fatigue tests (numbers of cycles shown are in thousands).

Cyclic Incremental Strains in the Composite Section
Fig. 8 shows the cyclic incremental strains in the shear connectors
for the specimen with a partial shear connection (FSB-4). Although
the residual deflection [Fig. 6(b)] and plastic slippage (Fig. 7) con-
firm damage in the steel-concrete shear connection, the results in
Fig. 8(a) demonstrate the same behavior between the plastic slip-
page and the residual strain in the shear connector at the beam ends.
That coinciding behavior illustrates the compatibility between the
shear connectors and concrete deck. Higher incremental strains
were experienced in the shear connectors near the supports in com-
parison to those around the quarter-spans during the fatigue tests
[Fig. 8(b)]. This difference in the incremental strains correlates to
the relative slipping between the concrete deck and steel beam
along the beam length, which was maximum at the beam ends.
Albrecht and Lenwari (2008) demonstrated experimentally that a
sudden increase in displacement was associated with shear connec-
tor failure. Because no sudden displacements were recorded by any
of the LVDTs, this indicates that no shear stud failure occurred
during fatigue testing. In addition, this was confirmed by inspecting
the shear connectors after completion of the static tests and removal
of concrete around the shear connectors. Fig. 8(c) shows that shear
connectors in the specimen with partial shear connection experi-
enced higher levels of strain compared to the other specimens. This
higher strain levels might be responsible for the initiation of fatigue
cracks (Fig. 9).

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Fig. 6. Deflection response of fatigue tests: (a) cyclic load-deflection behavior for specimens FSB-3 and FSB-4; and (b) residual deflection.
Fig. 7. Plastic slippage between the concrete flange and steel beam.
The cyclic incremental strains in the concrete decks and bottom
flanges of the steel beams at midspans are illustrated in Fig. 10 for
the fatigue specimens. Due to damage accumulation in the steel-
concrete shear connection, the cyclic incremental strain increased
gradually during the fatigue tests. The higher the fatigue load level,
the higher the damage in the shear connection, which increased the
cyclic incremental strains in the concrete decks and bottom flanges
of the steel beams (Fig. 10). The specimen with partial shear con-
nection experienced the highest level of incremental strains due to
the original lack of a steel-concrete shear connection.
Residual Static Capacity of Fatigued Specimens
Static tests were performed on the fatigue specimens up to failure to
monitor the residual strength of composite beams after a million
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cycles. In addition, only a static test was performed on the reference
specimen (RSB-1) for comparison with the residual behavior of the
fatigue specimens. The observed inelastic behavior for the refer-
ence specimen was governed by yielding in the bottom flange
of the steel beam followed by crushing in the concrete deck at
the midspan (Fig. 11). This mode of failure was also observed
for the static residual strength testing of the fatigue specimens.
Comparisons of deflection, slippage, and strain measurements
are presented in Figs. 12–14 and are summarized in Table 4 for
the reference and fatigue specimens.
The behavior of all specimens exhibited an elastic response up
to the emergence of nonlinear strain in the bottom flange of the
steel beam at the central zone, as illustrated in Fig. 12(a). At
the onset of steel flange yielding, the strain in the upper fiber of
the concrete deck was very low, around 0.05%, which indicates
that the concrete deck for all specimens did not exhibit damage
at that point. Crushing of the concrete deck in the central zone
was observed as all specimens reached their ultimate capacities.
Therefore, the overall static response and failure of all specimens,
including the partial-shear-connection specimen, were controlled
by yielding of the steel beam and crushing of the concrete deck
at midspan. Because the specimen with the partial shear connection
was able to crush the concrete deck without shearing the studs, this
suggests that the specimen behaved in a full-composite manner,
even after fatigue loading.
The damage in concrete around the shear connectors during
fatigue testing caused a loss of the composite interaction between
the steel beam and the concrete deck. This loss is evident in
the load-slippage relationships, which occurred around 100 kN
[Fig. 12(b)]. Therefore, the slippage indicated in Table 4 occurred
at 100 kN. Fig. 12(b) also shows that the effect of damage around
the shear connectors is less pronounced after the applied load
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Fig. 8. Cyclic strains in the shear connectors at supports for specimen FSB-4: (a) incremental strain and plastic slippage comparison; (b) incremental
strain comparison at different locations; and (c) total strain comparison at the beam ends.

exceeded the maximum fatigue load of 180 kN. Although the cyclic
loads caused a reduction in the composite interaction between the
concrete deck and steel beam, which decreased the strength of the
fatigue specimens, the full shear connection limited the strength
deterioration for the fatigue specimens, as demonstrated in the
change in capacities shown in Table 4.
Fig. 12(b) also shows that the specimen with a partial shear
connection experienced more damage in the concrete around the
Fatigue cracks initiation shear connectors during fatigue testing, which led to an increase
in the shear connectors’ strains relative to the strains in the refer-
Fig. 9. Fatigue crack initiation at the foot of both shear connectors ence specimen in Fig. 13. After the maximum fatigue loading of
located at beam end for specimen FSB-4. 150 kN, the trends for longitudinal slippages [Fig. 12(b)] and shear
connector strains (Fig. 13) for the fatigue specimens with full shear

Fig. 10. Cyclic incremental strains at midspans in the (a) concrete flange; and (b) bottom flange of the steel beam.

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 Zone of crushing
Zone of yielding

Fig. 11. Typical mode of failure for the static tests.

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Fig. 12. Deformations of the tested specimens: (a) load-deflection relationship; and (b) slippage between the concrete flange and steel beam.

Fig. 13. Strain in the shear connectors: (a) near supports; and (b) near quarter-spans.

Fig. 14. Strains at midspans for the (a) concrete flange; and (b) bottom flange of the steel beam.

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 Table 4. Static response comparisons of fatigued specimens
Capacity Yielding load Slippagea
b b
Specimen Composite type kN % change kN % change mm % changeb
RSB-1 Full 378.7 — 295.2 — 0.06 —
FSB-2 Full 363.8 −3.9 285.9 −3.2 0.10 þ66.7
FSB-3 Full 361.9 −4.4 277.3 −6.1 0.11 þ83.3
FSB-4 Partial 355.4 −6.2 240.6 −18.5 0.16 þ166.7
a
Slippage values at 100 kN load.
b
% change is calculated based on the reference specimen RSB-1.
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RSB-1 FSB-2

(a) Uplift
(b)

Compressive strain
Tensile strain

(c)

Fig. 15. Variation of strains on both sides of shear connectors located at supports for specimens: (a) RSB-1 and (b) FSB-2; and (c) schematic view of
the shear connector deformation under the applied forces.

connections became similar to the ones for the reference specimen.
The strains in the concrete deck and bottom flange of the steel
beams for the fatigued specimens are compared in Fig. 14 with
those for the reference specimen. The damage in the steel-concrete
shear connection led to an increase in these strains compared to the
reference beam.
The uplift forces developed between the steel beam and concrete
deck at the beam ends caused a difference in strain readings re-
corded on both sides of the shear connectors, especially at loads
above the fatigue level (Fig. 15). Therefore, the average value of
the two strain readings (tensile and compressive strains) can be
used to represent the actual strain in the shear connectors at a
low level of loading, as presented by Lin et al. (2013). On the other
hand, the average value would underestimate the actual strain in the
shear connectors at higher loading levels.
Investigation of the Shear Connectors Fatigue Life
After completion of the static tests, the concrete decks were
removed to inspect the conditions of the shear connectors in all
fatigue specimens. Although the shear stress ranges, presented in
Table 1, were designed according to the stress range versus number
of cycles (S-N) curve in AASTHO (2012) for the shear stud fatigue
capacity to cause fatigue fractures in the shear connectors at a spe-
cific numbers of cycles, as illustrated in Fig. 16, no fatigue failures
were noted in any of the shear connectors for the fatigued speci-
mens. Only fatigue crack initiation at the foot of the shear connec-
tors at the beam ends was noticed after 1,000,000 cycles for the
specimen with the partial shear connection, as described previously.
The current AASHTO shear stud design S-N curve was devel-
oped using fatigue results from standard push-out tests, and these
types of tests cannot represent the actual tensile or compressive
stresses in the concrete deck and top flange of the steel beam. Fur-
thermore, the fatigue behavior of shear connectors was significantly
affected by the stress state of the steel plate and concrete nearby.
Based on the basis of the AASHTO S-N curve and the experimental
results presented in this paper, the current AASHTO shear stud
design S-N curve predicted a lower fatigue life for the shear con-
nectors. Therefore, more fatigue tests on steel-concrete composite
beams are required to be run until a complete fatigue fracture failure

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Log (N) = 8.061 – 0.0266 ( ) improve current S-N curve to better predict the fatigue life of shear
FSB-4
FSB-3
FSB-2
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Fig. 16. AASHTO design S-N curve for shear stud fatigue capacity
showing predicted number of cycles at failure for fatigue specimens.
in the shear connectors to propose a new S-N curve to improve the
fatigue life of shear connector predictions.
Conclusion
Fatigue performance of steel-concrete composite beams was evalu-
ated experimentally by testing four specimens. The influence of
cyclic loads on the residual strength of the specimens was evaluated
by applying static tests until failure after the completion of the
fatigue tests. The results of the experimental program led to the
following conclusions.
The shear stress range in the shear connectors, which depends
on the degree of shear connection between the concrete deck
and steel beam, played a major role in controlling the fatigue cracks
in the concrete deck. Visible shear cracks propagated longitudi-
nally, between rows of the shear connectors, through the shear span
regions in the specimen with a partial shear connection, whereas
such cracks were not observed in specimens with full shear
connections.
After completion of the fatigue tests, it was observed that
providing top and bottom longitudinal reinforcement and trans-
verse reinforcement in the concrete deck can provide adequate
confinement to concrete to prevent longitudinal splitting of the con-
crete deck.
During fatigue, as the number of cycles increased, the residual
deflection increased due to the damage in the concrete caused
by the shear connectors, which led to a decrease in the composite
stiffness of the beams.
The beam with a partial shear connection demonstrated a rapid
increase in the residual midspan deflection in the early stage of the
fatigue test and resulted in the highest residual deflection in com-
parison to specimens with full shear connections.
Due to the decrease in composite stiffness, horizontal plastic
slippage between the concrete deck and steel beam increased,
which resulted in gradually increasing the cyclic strain limits dur-
ing the fatigue tests.
Specimens with partial shear connections experienced higher
levels of strain compared to the other specimens. These higher
strain levels might be responsible for the initiation of fatigue cracks.
Although cyclic loads caused a reduction in the composite
interaction between the concrete deck and steel beam, the full shear
connection limited the stiffness degradation and strength deterio-
ration observed for the residual static performance of fatigued
specimens.
The current AASHTO shear stud S-N design curve assumed a
lower fatigue life of shear connectors. Therefore, additional fatigue
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testing to failure on steel-concrete composite beams is needed to
connectors.
Acknowledgments
The financial support sponsored by the Ministry of Higher Educa-
tion of Egypt is gratefully acknowledged. In addition, the generous
donation of materials and services from DeLong’s Inc., USA, is
greatly appreciated.
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