To investigate the load transfer mechanism of the steel‐concrete hybrid pylon joint with cells and bearing plates, a theoretical model based on the continuous elastic interlayer method was established. Both the slip effect at the steel‐concrete interface and the local compression effect of the bearing plate were considered in the proposed theoretical model. A segment model test with a 1 : 3 scale was carried out to obtain the strain distribution of the hybrid joint and the relative slip between steel and concrete components. Finite element analysis was implemented on the tested segment model, and the structural performance of the tested hybrid joint was compared with the FEA results. The test and analysis results show that the stress of steel and concrete components is at a lower level, and the relative slip between steel and concrete components is extremely limited. The bearing plates and shear connectors are the two load‐transferring components and could transfer 40% and 60% of the vertical force into the lower concrete pylon, respectively. The vertical force of shear connectors is at a much lower magnitude within 0.6 times the length of the hybrid joint from the bearing plate and will increase gradually within 0.6 to 1.0 times the length of the hybrid joint. The FEA results are in good agreement with the model test results, and the maximum shear force difference between the theoretical analysis results and the FEA results is less than 10%, proving that the proposed theoretical model can reasonably predict the shear force distribution at the steel‐concrete interface of the hybrid joint. In addition, the stiffness of shear connectors has limited effect on the shear force distribution at the steel‐concrete interface.

In the theoretical or numerical analysis of composite/hybrid structures, headed stud connectors at the steel–concrete interface are usually modelled as linear spring elements; thus, their tensile stiffness will be an essential parameter to affect the tensile force distribution. This article investigates the tensile stiffness of headed stud connectors through theoretical analysis combined with the existing pull-out test results. The pull-out displacement of headed stud connectors from concrete blocks mainly includes two parts: one part is the elastic elongation of the stud rod and another is the axial displacement of the stud head in concrete blocks resulted from the concrete elastic deformation. Mindlin’s solution is employed to predict the second part displacement with the introduction of an unknown coefficient, which is estimated based on the existing headed anchor pull-out test results. Subsequently, an equation for predicting the tensile stiffness of headed stud connectors is proposed. The predicting tensile stiffness for headed stud connectors with various stud heights presents a good agreement with the pull-out test results. Meanwhile, neglecting the axial displacement of the stud head in concrete blocks, especially for relatively short height headed studs, will produce an overestimated tensile stiffness.