Compensating steel web-opened beams for the loss in cyclic shear capacity by longitudinal stiffeners

Ali, Yasmin; Elgammal, Ahmed

doi:10.21608/dusj.2023.291030

Compensating steel web-opened beams for the loss in cyclic shear capacity by longitudinal stiffeners

Document Type : Original research papers

Authors

Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Delta University for Science and Technology, Gamasa, Egypt

10.21608/dusj.2023.291030

Abstract

In construction practices nowadays, web openings are provided in steel beams to allow room for services, such as pipes and air ducts, to pass through them. However, these web openings have been proved to cause a loss in the shear capacity. Accordingly, in this research a high-performance technique is adopted to compensate web-opened beams for the loss in their shear capacity; particularly when they are subjected to cyclic loading. That technique represents in the installation of additional longitudinal stiffeners in the panel adjacent to the one containing the opening; thus, mitigating shear buckling in that panel and increasing the cyclic shear capacity. For this purpose, a 3-D finite element (FE) model, using Ansys Workbench, was utilized to investigate one solid web beam in addition to eight web-opened beams. Each of the failure mode, cyclic shear capacity and deflection of the specimens were comprehensively investigated. The results indicated that the installation of additional longitudinal stiffeners is an efficient solution to overcome the loss in cyclic shear capacity of web-opened beams, especially in the case of relatively small openings. They even raised the cyclic shear capacity to more than that of the solid web specimen. In the case of large openings, longitudinal stiffeners managed also to improve the cyclic shear capacity despite not reaching that of the solid web specimen.

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