A few studies used full-embedded steel sections in composite beams to reduce their cross sections. This paper presents the behavior of normal and high-strength composite beams having various heights of full-embedded steel sections. The stirrups and compression reinforcement details of the beams were the same. The finite element method was adopted in the 3D nonlinear analysis of the presented study. Full-scale composite models were investigated and tested under four-point bending. The load-deflection behavior including the elastic and post-cracking stages was monitored in this paper. Furthermore, the stress distribution of embedded steel sections, crack patterns, and modes of failure of the composite beams were investigated and studied. The results showed that the implemented analytical models were accurate, in which the error percentage was only 1.3%. The high-strength concrete composite beams showed more strength and ductile failure than those with normal strength. Also, the full-embedded steel sections have fully or partially yielded.
Sarhan et al. (2025) studied this question.