Experimental study and rotational capacity of steel beams with web openings

This paper presents an experimental and analytical study on rotational behaviour of steel beams with web openings. An experimental study was performed on a prototype model of steel beams with web openings. Four specimens of hot rolled steel beams of ISMB 100, with different spacing to diameter ratio (S/Do) were tested to investigate the failure mode and ultimate strength of steel beams with web openings. The beams were simply supported at the ends and subjected to a concentrated load applied at the mid span. After performing experimental study, all the beams were analyzed by the elasto-plastic finite element method by using general finite element analysis software ANSYS and the results were compared with those obtained experimentally. The test results indicate that the load-carrying capacity decreases with the increase in the openings area as well as position of the openings. The finite element results for deformation and ultimate strength shows good agreement with the corresponding values observed in the experiments. At last a parametric study was carried out by using finite element method to study the rotational capacity of steel beams with web openings. The result of parametric study shows that, web openings reduce the beam ductility till 68%.