Finite Element Analysis on Shear Strength of a Castellated Beam with Hexagonal Web Opening

Abstract

A beam (flexural member) with several regular openings with different shapes is called a castellated beam. The castellated beams are well accepted in the industry, multi-story buildings, and power plants due to their increased depth of the section along with the web results in increased strength and stiffness. Though numerous simulation and experimental analyses have been made on the castellated beam, with intermediate transverse stiffener, bearing stiffener and torsion stiffener are used to increase a load-bearing capacity of the beam, but the study on the understanding of diagonal stiffener in the opening is very meager. The objective of the research is to investigate the linear behavior – ISMB150 and IC225 castellated beam of hexagonal openings with and without diagonal stiffeners and the effect of fillet radius at the corner of the openings is studied. Using finite element analysis software,Hyper works, with OptiStruct as a solver, under simply supported beam construction with four-point loading conditions was analyzed by developing an efficient 3D model for the analysis. Due to the openings in the section, the sharp corner of the opening is subjected to Vierendeel failure by the formation of plastic hinges at the corners, which makes critical hence by providing diagonal stiffener in the direction of diagonal tension and diagonal compression for the smooth flow of shear forces. The results show an improvement in load-bearing capacity of 1.51 times in the castellated beam than the parent section ISMB150. The stiffener provided further enhances the same to 1.45 times compared to the ISMB150 section. The linear results show lesser stress concentrations at the web opening corners, thus reducing the prominence of failure at the corners.