Numerical investigation on effective spans ranges of perforated steel beams

Abstract

Perforated steel beams (PSBs) have become very common because of their beneficial implementations in the construction of buildings. In this research a finite element model (FEM) is developed for analyzing the load bearing capacity of PSBs compared to the parent beams. An extensive parametric study is used to investigate the effects of web opening shapes, cutting length and load configurations to obtain the minimum span to depth ratio (L/D) of PSBs that have more failure capacity relative to the native steel beams. Moreover, a localized axial-bending (P-M) interaction curves involving nonlinear response in both geometry and material configurations are established in order to evaluate vierendeel and flexural mechanisms. The P-M curves emphasis that PSBs with sinusoidal web openings has a higher load bearing capacity than those with traditional circular or hexagonal openings. Finally, practical design method is proposed to help the designers to overcome the uncovered parts of ASCE specifications for design of other castellated and cellular steel beams (CSBs) which have sinusoidal and elongated circular web opening shapes.