Journal of Constructional Steel Research 70 (2012) 101114

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Journal of Constructional Steel Research

Nonlinear FE analysis of the ultimate behavior of steel castellated beams

M.R. Soltani a,, A. Bouchar b, M. Mimoune c
a
b
c

Tbessa University, Civil Engineering Department, Algeria

Clermont-Ferrand Universit, Universit Blaise Pascal, LaMI, Polytech, BP 206, F-63000 Clermont-Ferrand, France
Constantine University, Laboratory of Structures and Materials (LMSS), Algeria

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 1 October 2010
Accepted 10 October 2011
Available online 16 November 2011
Keywords:
Castellated beams
Cross-section class
Buckling
Imperfection
Tee-section
Web-post
Ultimate load
ENV1993-1-1 Annex N

a b s t r a c t
A numerical model is developed to predict the behavior of castellated beams with hexagonal and octagonal
openings up to failure. The numerical model takes into account both material and geometric nonlinearities. To
initiate buckling, an initial small out-of-plane geometric imperfection, obtained from an eigenvalues buckling
analysis, was imposed to the model. Results of experimental data obtained from previous works have shown
that the model is able to predict, with good accuracy, the ultimate load and to some extent the mode of failure.
A parametric study is then realized to assess the cross-section classication given in the Annex N and to compare
between the ultimate load behavior of castellated beams with hexagonal and octagonal openings when
subjected to exure and shear force. The numerical results have been compared with those obtained with
the design method presented in ENV1993-1-1 Annex N.
2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
In steel structures, beams with opening in the web are widely used
to pass the underoor services ducts (water and sewage pipes, air
ducts, cables etc.). Castellated beams are varieties of girders with generally circular or hexagonal web openings, distributed along the beams
with regular intervals. The process of manufacturing castellated
beams, by cutting the web in zigzag pattern along its centerline and
then rejoining the two halves by welding, leads into an increase in
bending capacity and a reduction of the weight of the beam allowing
this type of beams to be used for medium to long spans constructions.
It is also possible to weld square or rectangular plates between the cut
halves, giving an even deeper castellated beam, producing octagonal
holes in its body. However, the presence of opening in the web affects
signicantly the shear and buckling resistance of the beam. As a result,
failure may occur in different or similar fashion than those observed in
solid beams. The experimental studies outlined in reference [1] have
identied six potential failure modes. These failure modes depend on
the special geometry of castellated beams, web slenderness, geometry
and size of openings, type of loading, and lateral supports provision.
Pure bending, shear and overall lateral torsional-buckling are
similar to the corresponding modes for solid-web beams and can
be treated in an almost identical manner, if the relevant geometric
properties used are based on the reduced cross-section.

Corresponding author. Tel.: + 213 37 49 02 58; fax: + 213 37 49 02 68.

E-mail address: Soltani_Mohamed_Redha@yahoo.com (M.R. Soltani).
0143-974X/$ see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jcsr.2011.10.016

Vierendeel mechanism, yielding or buckling of the web-post in

shear or in compression and fracture of the welded joint are local
failures typical to castellated beams, in a way that they are related
to the geometry of the upper and bottom tee-sections and the
web-posts that bound the openings.
For webs with large opening lengths under high shear to moment
ratio, Vierendeel mechanism is susceptible to occur. It is due to the
formation of four plastic hinges in the upper and bottom teesections above and below the hole due to the combination of the
global moment and Vierendeel moment. The Vierendeel moment
or secondary moment is due to the transfer of shearing forces
across the opening. For castellated beams with hexagonal openings,
the plastic hinges are formed at re-entrant corners of the critical
opening.
For thin webbed castellated beams, the horizontal shear force Vhi
acting at the mid-depth of the web-post (Fig. 1) is associated with a
double curvature bending moment over the height of the web-post.
The resulting compressive stresses occurring at one of the inclined
edges of the opening will cause the buckling of the web-post in
shear. This mode of failure has been observed in many of the reported
composite and non-composite castellated beam tests such as in references [24].
Fracture of welded joint in a web-post is caused by the action of
the horizontal shearing force Vhi when the width of the web-post or
the length of welded joint is small.
The web-posts may also exhibit compression buckling when they
are subjected to concentrated load introduced by secondary beams or
by reaction point. This mode of failure is not generally the governing

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M.R. Soltani et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 70 (2012) 101114

10 t w
Class 2 webs: bwc q
 2 if l0 > 32tw
1

32t w
lo

All class 3 webs may be treated as class 2 if l0 32tw.

14 t w
Class 3 webs: bwc q
 2 if l0 > 36tw
1

Fig. 1. Web-post bending stresses due to horizontal shear force.

mode of failure and it could be prevented by providing adequate

bearing reinforcing web stiffeners.
The main objective of this paper is to investigate the accuracy of
the design method given in the ENV1993-1-1 Annex N [5] as analytical approach. For this purpose, a nite element model is developed
taking into account material and geometric nonlinearities. Parametric
studies are also carried out in order to assess the cross-section classication given in the Annex N and to compare between the ultimate
load behavior of castellated beams with hexagonal and octagonal
openings when subjected to exure and shear force.
A perforated section is classied according to the highest (least
favorable) class of the:

36t w
lo

All class 4 webs may be treated as class 3 if l0 > 32tw.

The notations adopted for the geometric dimensions of the castellated beams with
hexagonal and octagonal openings are shown in
q
Fig. 2 with 235
and fy is the material yield stress in MPa.
fy
Cross-sections subjected to bending belonging to class 2 (compact) are able to develop a full plastic behavior with a limited rotation
capacity. Class 3 (semi-compact) are those in which only the stress in
the extreme bers can reach its yielding stress because local buckling
prevents development of the full plastic stress distribution. Class 4
(slender) are those in which local buckling occurs in the elastic
range and bending resistance is determined based on an effective
cross-section.
For castellated beams, local buckling may occur in three ways:
Buckling of the compression ange.
Buckling of the web-ange section (T section) in compression
due to the global bending action. For unstiffened openings,
this check is required for large openings in regions of high
moment.
Vertical instability of the sides of the web openings in high shear
zones. Plated beams are more susceptible to this form of web
instability.
2. Design methods

Compression ange as it is dened by clause 5.3.2(1) of EN1993-1-1 [6]

Outstand of the web of the tee-section, depending on the ratio of
the length l0 to the outstand depth bwc, which is given by the
ENV1993-1-1 Annex N [5] as follow:

In recent years, little research work has been published on the

design of castellated beam and particularly for castellated beams
with hexagonal openings. At present, there is not a generally accepted

l0 =

a 0 + b0
2

l0 =

a 0 + b 0 eff
2

Fig. 2. Geometric properties of castellated beam with hexagonal openings and denition of the length lo.

M.R. Soltani et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 70 (2012) 101114

103

draft format but was never completed [7]. In this section, a literature
review of the design methods relative to local failures is summarized.

Critical section

2.1. Vierendeel mechanism

Principal compressive stress

Fig. 3. Principal compressive stresses and position of the critical section at failure [18].

This mode is associated with the local internal forces around a

single opening. A number of design approaches were proposed
to characterize the strength associated with this failure mode.
These methods are based on one of the two following simplistic
approaches [8]:

design method due to the complexity of the behavior of castellated

beams and their associated modes of failure. At European level, the design guidance given in the annex N of ENV 1993-1-1 was prepared in

a Tee-section design method. In this method, the plastic moment

capacity of the tee-sections above and below the opening are calculated independently. Interaction between tee-section resistant

a) Octagonal openings

Lateral bracing
u(x) = 0
Simply supported

Load

Lateral bracing
u(x) = 0

Symmetry boundary
condition w(z) = 0

Web with intermediate plate

b) Hexagonal openings

Fig. 4. Meshing, boundary and loading conditions.

Load

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M.R. Soltani et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 70 (2012) 101114

Fig. 5. A Typical rst buckling mode shape.

moment ratio Msd/Mord and the shear force ratio Vsd/Vord at the
center of the opening were proposed [811].

moment and high local shear and axial forces should be considered. The total resistance to the local Vierendeel bending Mvrd,
equal to the sum of the Vierendeel resistances of the top and bottom tee-sections, should satisfy:
Mvrd > V sd  leff

Msd
Mord
Vord

where
is the global shear force which must be transferred through
the opening i
is the effective length of the opening; leff = e for hexagonal
openings.

Vsd
leff

where

The design formula proposed in the Annex N is based on this

approach.
b Perforated section. In this method, the resistance of the critical
section is calculated for a perforated section. A number of nondimensional empirical interaction curves relating the bending

is the global design moment at the center of the web opening

is the moment capacity of the perforated section
is the shear capacity of the perforated section.

2.2. Web-post buckling

This mode of failure due to horizontal shearing force and bending
moment at the mid-height of the web-post has been treated by use of
column analogies [12,13] or beam analogies [14,15]. In the design
method given in SCI PI-100 [16], which was adopted by the Annex
N, the web-post buckling resistance in bending is checked by using
the following design polynomial equation:
n
o
MSd
2
min C 1 C 2 C 3 ; 0:6
Mel;Rd

Table 1
Geometric and material properties of the tested castellated beams.
Specimens
a

101
102a
103a
104a
121a
122a
123a
124a
105b
106b
107b
a
b

dg (mm)

bf (mm)

tw (mm)

tf (mm)

e (mm)

h0 (mm)

b (mm)

hp (mm)

L (mm)

fyw (MPa)

fyf (MPa)

370.59
417.83
376.43
425.45
476.25
527.81
449.58
501.65
380.50
380.50
380.50

69.09
69.85
70.61
70.61
78.49
77.98
78.23
77.98
66.90
66.90
66.90

3.58
3.61
3.61
3.68
4.69
4.59
4.62
4.69
3.56
3.56
3.56

4.39
3.98
4.45
4.27
5.33
5.36
5.35
5.33
4.59
4.59
4.59

58.17
57.66
57.91
58.93
73.41
74.42
71.37
68.33
77.80
77.80
77.80

245.87
295.15
260.53
308.10
352.81
403.86
302.51
349.75
266.20
266.20
266.20

69.85
69.85
127
127
101.6
101.6
149.35
149.35
76.2
76.2
76.2

0
50.80
0
50.80
0
50.80
0
50.80
0
0
0

12
12
8
8
8
8
6
6
4
6
8

3048
3048
3048
3048
3048
3048
3048
3048
1220
1828
2438

357.10
357.10
357.10
357.10
311.60
311.60
311.60
311.60
352.90
352.90
352.90

342
342
342
342
307
307
307
307
345.60
345.60
345.60

Beams tested by Zaarour and Redwood (1995)

Beams tested by Redwood and Dermidjian (1998)

M.R. Soltani et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 70 (2012) 101114

Table 2
Sensitivity of tested Beams to variation in the imperfection amplitude.
Specimen PTEST

PFEM for dw/

200 (kN)

P TEST/ PFEM for dw/

PFEM
100 (kN)

PTEST/
PFEM

Reduction in
failure load (%)

101
79.1
103
73.84
121
114.66
123
116.44
105 (a) 92.7
105 (b) 100.9
106
94.8
107
84.4
Mean
Standard
deviation

73.87
83.33
123.9
111.70
101
101
84.9
81.72

1.07
0.89
0.92
1.04
0.92
1.00
1.12
1.03
0.998
0.082

1.12
0.92
0.97
1.06
0.99
1.07
1.19
1.10
1.05
0.088

4.71
3.32
0.05
0.02
6.93
6.93
6.60
5.95
4.31
2.91

70.39
80.56
117.8
109.7
94
94
79.3
76.86

105

An analytical method has been developed, for steel and composite

cellular beams in cold and re conditions as part of the ACB design
optimization study [1718]. The buckling resistance is veried by
checking that the principal compressive stress, calculated at the border of the web-post being veried, does not exceed the principal
compressive stress resistance as shown in Fig. 3. The location of the
critical section at a given web-post is determined from experimental
observations and analytical analysis. The simplied design and resistance stresses are derived from experimental and numerical studies.
The approach proposed by Lawson [19] is based on a compression
eld or strut model. The model was calibrated against the results of
nonlinear nite element analyses. This design method was aimed to
extend the analysis to the composite beams with asymmetric crosssection and circular or rectangular openings. The case of hexagonal
openings was not treated.

where MSd V hi  h20 is the elastic bending moment at critical webt f

p2b2

is the elastic bending resistance of

post section Mel;Rd W yw 6
the critical web-post section = p/h0 is the aspect ratio and fyw is
the yielding stress of the steel web.C1, C2, C3 are geometric parameter
constants. They are determined as follows:
C 1 5:097 0:1464 0:00174

C 2 1:441 0:0625 0:000683

C 3 3:645 0:0853 0:00108

Web-post with too short mid-depth welded joints may fail prematurely when horizontal shear stresses exceed the yield strength. To
avoid such failure, the following shear strength criterion, dened in
ENV 1993-1-1 Annex N [5], should be checked:
e t w f yw
V hi p
3

3. Experimental and nite element modeling studies

where

2.3. Fracture of welded joint between openings

h0
tw

and tw is the thickness of the web-post.

Assuming that vertical shear forces Vi and Vi + 1 are equal and the
lines of the axial forces Ni and Ni + 1 are acting at the centroid of the
top tee-section, the horizontal shear force is determined by considering the equilibrium equations from the free body diagram shown in
Fig. 1 by:
P

V hi V i 
dg 2yt
where dg is the overall beam depth and yt is the distance of outer
ange to centroid of tee-section (Fig. 1).
This semi-empirical design method [16] was calibrated against the
results of load tests and nite element analyses on symmetric noncomposite beams.
Table 3
Comparison of experimental and nite element ultimate load.
Specimen Flange
class

Web of the tee-section

class

PTest
(kN)

PFEM
(kN)

PTest/
PFEM

101
2
102
3
103
1
104
2
121
1
122
1
123
1
124
1
105 (a) 1
105 (b) 1
106
1
107
1
Mean
Standard deviation

3
3
4
4
3
3
4
4
3
3
3
3

79.10
58.71
73.84
50.26
114.66
94.74
116.44
93.41
92.70
100.9
94.80
84.40

70.39
59.65
80.56
56.00
117.8
95.50
109.7
92.20
94.00
94.00
79.3
76.86

1.12
0.984
0.916
0.897
0.970
0.991
1.06
1.013
0.986
1.073
1.19
1.10
1.025
0.0866

A series of tests on steel and composite thin webbed castellated

beams with hexagonal and octagonal openings were carried out at
McGill University. The main objective of this experimental campaign was to investigate the web-post buckling and to develop a numerical model capable to predict the buckling failure load. All
numerical modelings were performed by using MSC/NASTRAN software. Zaarour and Redwood [2] adopted a nite-element model based
on a single web-post and parts of the beam in the immediate vicinity to
examine the shear buckling of twelve castellated beams. In the model,
the web-post has been modeled with two-dimensional isoparametric,
membrane-bending quadrilateral elements CQUAD4 taking into account the nonlinear material properties. A nonlinear nite element
analysis on composite and eight non-composite castellated beams
with two hexagonal openings was performed by Megharief [3]. The
model which consisted of full anges, web and transverse stiffeners,
was modeled with CQUAD4 elements. The aim of this investigation
was to evaluate the effect of geometry and eccentricity of openings
on shear buckling load. This study has shown that composite beams
have signicant higher ultimate shear carrying capacities than their
non-composite counterparts. Redwood and Dermidjian [4] have used
the same elements with more renement meshing to analyze four castellated beams with identical cross-sections and opening congurations, with only the span varying. The aim of this study was
essentially to investigate the effect of bending to shear ratio. The critical
loads were evaluated by elastic nite element bifurcation analysis;
yielding effect was not considered. Because of the slenderness of the
beam webs, it was assumed that the beams would fail by elastic buckling before yielding will occur in the web-post. The failure loads
obtained from the FEM analysis were slightly higher than those
obtained from experiments.
The latest experimental and numerical studies have been carried
out to investigate the lateral-torsional buckling of castellated beams
with hexagonal openings [20, 21]. This mode of failure is not considered in this study.
Wang and Chung [22] have successfully developed a two dimensional nite element model to predict the load carrying capacity related
to the Vierendeel failure mechanism of composite beams with large

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M.R. Soltani et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 70 (2012) 101114

Fig. 6. Effect of the geometric imperfection magnitudes on load-deection curves.

rectangular web openings and exible shear connectors. The numerical

analysis was performed with nite element package ABAQUS, Version
6.3. The two dimensional model was developed by idealizing both
the slab and the steel beam using iso-parametric four-noded twodimensional plane stress elements, CPS4R. Comparison between tests
results selected from available literature proves that the proposed
model could predict, with good accuracy, the failure load and the
mode of failure as well. Moreover, the results obtained from the numerical analysis agree very well with those of the analytical method
proposed previously by the same authors [23].
The nite element models proposed in references [2,4] were mainly
used to predict the buckling load of a single web-post. However, the
nite element model proposed in this paper is developed to determine
the ultimate load when the governing mode of failure is yield mechanism or web-post buckling by considering the full model with material
and geometric nonlinearities.
4. Finite element modeling
The numerical simulations developed in this research program are
carried-out by using general-purpose nite element software LUSAS
version 13.8 [24]. The webs, anges, intermediate plates and stiffeners
were modeled by a 3D eight-node thin shell semiloof element (QSL8
in the LUSAS element library) with three degrees of freedom u,v, and
w at each of four corners and four midsides and normal rotations at
the two Gauss points (the so-called 'Loof' nodes) along each side.

This element takes into account the membrane and exural deformations and can simulate plastic and large displacement behaviors. Only
one layer of elements is used in the through thickness direction. Finer
meshes are generated to model areas near the openings, in order to
improve precision and to accommodate the opening shapes. The calculation model exploited symmetry of geometry and loading about
the center plane of the beam with only one-half of the beam modeled
in order to reduce the model size and subsequent processing time.
Although the cross-section was also symmetrical about its major and
minor axes, it was necessary to model the full cross-section because
the buckled shape is non-symmetrical. Regular meshing was
employed for all components of the beam. The density and the conguration of the nite element mesh were determined based on results
obtained from convergence studies in order to provide a reasonable
balance between accuracy and computational expense. The dimensions of elements with the minimum width, located around the opening, were chosen such that the aspect ratio was kept below 5. The
nonlinear analyses were performed with meshes varying from 1472
to 3776 elements. An overall view of typical nite element models,
of castellated beams with hexagonal and octagonal openings are
shown in Fig. 4.
To account for the large displacements, geometry nonlinearity is
considered. The geometrically nonlinear analysis followed the continually changing geometry of the beam when formulating each successive load increment. The kinematic description of the shell
elements in nonlinear geometrical analysis is based on small strain

M.R. Soltani et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 70 (2012) 101114

107

Fig. 7. Variation of normalized load capacity with web thickness.

total and large displacement Lagrangian formulation. The stresses

and strains measures utilized are the second PiolaKirshoff stress
tensor and Green-Lagrange strain tensor referred to the undeformed
conguration. A total Lagrangian formulation was preferred to the
equivalent updated Lagrangian as it avoided the lengthy evaluation
of shape function derivatives for the shell element at each load step.
The beams considered in this study are simply supported at the
left-hand end with a symmetry support and loaded with a single
point load at mid-span. It was assumed that the self-weight of the
beam is negligible compared with the applied load since the uniform
shear condition is desired. The shear force was simulated by two vertical loads acting on the upper and lower anges to ovoid local failure
or instabilities from single concentrated load and to take into account
the role of stiffener [2,3]. The upper and lower web/ange junctions
are restrained only for the translation in the x direction to simulate
the lateral bracing of the beam, since the overall lateral-torsional
buckling is not considered in this study. The axial displacement in z
direction was restrained at the beam mid-span to satisfy symmetry
requirement. The boundary and loading conditions assigned to the
model are shown in Fig. 4.
The structural steel was modeled as an elastic perfectly plastic
material in both compression and tension with the von Mises yield
criterion. A bilinear stressstrain relationship is used. Young's modulus E was set to 210 GPa and Poisson's ratio was set to 0.3.
The nonlinear analysis is performed with initial small out-ofplane geometric imperfection built into the model, since vertical

loading applied on perfect model does not generate buckling. The

imperfections are unknown in the design phase in general; pattern
and amplitude have to be evaluated. They are usually used as general
random quantities that can be rigorously treated by stochastic techniques. In practice, a more practical deterministic approach is generally used. The displacements from the lowest buckling mode shape,
that result from an eigenvalues buckling analysis on the perfect geometry of the beam, is imposed as the initially imperfect shape of the
beam. Knowledge of the maximum amplitudes of the lowest eigenmodes is often sufcient to characterize the most inuential imperfections [25]. A brief study, described in Section 5, is performed to
assess the sensitivity of the beams to variation in imperfection amplitude and compared to the test results. Fig. 5 shows a typical contour plot of the out-of-plane displacement corresponding to the
rst buckling mode shape of a castellated beam with hexagonal
opening. In this study, the residual stresses are not considered.
To determine the nonlinear response of the beams, a combined
incremental/iterative procedure is used. Within each increment,
the nonlinear equilibrium equations are solved by means of the
NewtonRaphson procedure, in conjunction with Riks modied
Arc-Length Method.
5. Experimental validation and sensitivity studies
In order to check the validity and the degree of accuracy of the
proposed nite element model eleven castellated beams, reported

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M.R. Soltani et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 70 (2012) 101114

Fig. 8. Variation of normalized load capacity with yield stress.

from two experimental investigations carried out at McGill University

[2,4], were analyzed using LUSAS software. These beams containing
n hexagonal or octagonal holes were simply supported and subjected on the upper ange, centrically above the web, to a mid-span
point load. The beams were braced such that premature lateraltorsional and local ange buckling was prevented. They were also
provided with vertical stiffeners at both supports and at point loads.
All beams selected for this study failed essentially by web-post buckling effect. Table 1 presents the designation, details of geometrical
dimensions and the measured steel yield strengths of the web (fyw)
and the anges (fyf) of the tested beams. The failure of 10 of the tested
beams occurred by web-post buckling. In beam 106, ange and web
buckling of the tee-section were observed The failure in beam 107
occurred by lateral buckling probably due to inadequate lateral bracing set-up, but after exhibiting a signicant lateral deection at one of
the web-post.
As mentioned previously, the initial geometric imperfection is introduced from the rst mode shape obtained from a linear buckling
analysis. According to the authors' knowledge, no consensus exists
on maximum imperfection magnitudes for castellated beams even
when the imperfection in the shape of the lowest eigenmodes is
used. A limited study on sensitivity of the tested beams to an increase
in imperfection amplitude was then performed. The maximum imperfection magnitudes adopted were dened in terms of the clear web
depth between anges dw, in line with the recommendations given
in annex C of EN1993-1-5 [26] for plated structures without openings.

Ultimate loads of the tested beams obtained from nonlinear analysis

with maximum amplitude imperfection of dw/200 and dw/100 are
compared with ultimate load obtained from test results and summarized in Table 2.
The increase in the imperfection amplitude from dw/200 to dw/100
resulted in a mean reduction in failure load for the selected tested
beams of 4.31% with standard deviation of 2.91%, which represents a
relatively low sensitivity. Average results from nite element analysis
show that imperfection of dw/200 has a slight tendency to overpredict the strength of the beam and to under-predict it for an imperfection of dw/100. However, similar relatively small scatter was obtained
for both imperfections. It was then suggested that for the parametric
study described in Section 6, initial imperfection amplitude of dw/100
would give satisfactory results. Table 3 summarizes all test and FE
results, by considering initial imperfection amplitude of dw/100, for
the ultimate load. The ratio between the failure loads given by tests
and nite element model (PTest/PFEM) varies from 0.916 to 1.19 with a
mean value of 1.025 and a standard deviation of 0.0866. These statistical
measures show that the proposed nite element model can fairly
predict the ultimate load.
The effect of the maximum amplitude on the load versus deection
was also considered for beams 101, 103, 121 and 123. As can be
shown from Fig. 6, the initial imperfection has insignicant effect on
the load versus deection curves of these beams.
It should be noted that among all tested beams, which are classied as class 3 and 4, as shown in Table 3, only beam 106 failed by

M.R. Soltani et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 70 (2012) 101114

local web buckling of the tee-section. This may explain the reason
why the difference between the FEM and the test ultimate load is
the highest among the considered beams. Therefore, it can be concluded that Web-post buckling may occur before local web buckling
of the tee-section classied as class 4.
6. Parametric studies
Having the condence of the model with experimental results, a
series of parametric studies were conducted on the tested beams
101, 102, 103, 104, 121, 122, 123 and 124. The aim of this
study is to examine the inuence of the class of the perforated
cross-section on the ultimate strength and the mode of failure of castellated beams under combined bending and shear. A comparison
study of castellated beams with hexagonal and octagonal openings
was carried-out as well. It is well known that the primary parameters
affecting the nonlinear behavior of castellated beams are the bending
moment to shear force ratio at the center line of the opening, the
slenderness of the web dw/tw, the depth of the opening to the depth
of the web ratio h0/dw, and the material properties (yield stress and
stressstrain relationship). These geometrical and material parameters govern also the classication of the tee cross-section above and
below the opening. The parameters, which are considered in this
study, include the web thickness, the material yield stress and the
depth of the opening. All other dimensions were kept similar to
those of the tested beams. The numerical analysis was performed for

109

eighty-six castellated beams. Each study was carried out by varying

one particular parameter while keeping the other parameters constant.
It should be noted that in all the analyses, the loading and support conditions were kept the same as those adopted for the tested castellated
beams. The stressstrain relationship for all analyses adopted is
described in Section 3. On the other hand, in order to facilitate the interpretation of the results, the web and anges yield stresses (fyf and
fyw) are both set to 357 MPa, when the web thickness or the height
of the opening is the parameter of concern.
The predicted ultimate loads obtained from the numerical analyses (PFEM) have been normalized against the load corresponding
to the full yielding of the cross-section at the centerline subjected to
pure bending moment, denoted as PY.
The web thicknesses used for the parametric study were chosen in
order to cover all the classes of the tee-sections for each considered
castellated beam. Variations of the predicted ultimate load with respect to the web thickness are shown in Fig. 7. Each number shown
on the curves corresponds to the class of the tee-section relative to
a given thickness of the web. The yield stresses of the web and anges
used in the parametric study are 235, 300, 357, 400 and 460 MPa. The
variation of the predicted ultimate load with respect to yielding stress
and the corresponding web of the tee-section Class is shown in Fig. 8.
The Effect of the opening-height was studied by changing the ratio
h0/dw from 0.55 to 0.75 with increment of 0.05 and the results are
shown in Fig. 9. As can be seen from Table 1, the pairs of castellated
beams (101, 102), (103, 104), (121, 122) and (123, 124)

Fig. 9. Variation of normalized load capacity with ratio of opening height to web height.

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have the same geometries except for the presence or not of an intermediate plate. The second of each pair has an intermediate plate. In
order to facilitate the comparison between the behaviors of these
two types of castellated beams, the variation of the predicted ultimate
load with respect to a considered parameter was plotted for each pair
separately.
The examination of Figs. 79 show that the inuence of web thickness of developing a full plastic moment on castellated beams is the
dominant factor, while the inuence of the yielding stress and the
depth of the web to the height of the opening ratio appear to be of
secondary importance. Nevertheless, their effect should not be negligible. Figs. 7 and 8 show that the considered castellated beams, classied as class 2, do not reach their full plastic moment as dened by
Eurocode 3 [6]. This was expected because the critical sections are
subjected to combined bending and shear instead of pure bending.
Hence, the determination of the bending resistance at the center of
an opening should include the effect of shear force. This was not explicitly mentioned in clause N.3.4.2.2 of ENV1993-1-1 Annex N [5].
It can also be observed from Fig. 7 that the ratio PFEM/PY decreases
as the depth of the beams increases, which put into evidence once
again the inuence of shear force. The examination of Figs. 7 and

8 shows that the ratio PFEM/PY decreases as the web thickness decreases or as the yielding stress increases. Therefore, these results
agree with the conditions of Eurocode 3 Annex N, which denes the
cross-section classication of perforated cross-section of castellated
beams with hexagonal and octagonal openings.
Fig. 10 shows typical contour plots of the von Mises stresses at
failure for beam 121, classied as class 3, and two identical
beams of class 4 and 3 obtained by modifying the web thickness of
beam 121. This gure shows clearly that the spread of the plastic
zone grows as the class of the perforated cross-section is increased
which conrms the accuracy of the cross-section classication of
ENV1993-1-1 Annex N [5]. It can also be observed that the upper
and lower tee-sections of class 2 located in the vicinity of the midspan point load are almost fully yielded, which explains why the
values of the ratio PFEM/PY for beams of class 2 are in most cases
close to unity. This demonstrates that castellated beams classied
as class 2 will probably fail by yielding mechanism.
However, this agreement was not achieved for some beams classied as class 4 (see Fig. 9), where the ratio PFEM/PY increases as the
class of the perforated cross-section rises from class 3 to 4 or as it becomes closer to the upper limits of class 3 or 4. This may be explained

a) Modified beam 12-1 of class 4

b) Original beam 12-1 of class 3

c) Modified beam 12-1 of class 2

Fig. 10. Typical von Mises contour plots at failure for beams of various cross-section classes.

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111

Fig. 11. von Mises contour plot at failure for beam 122 (cross-section class 3).

by the fact that in these cases, failure will probably occurs by local
buckling of the top tee-section, and that the proposed numerical
model cannot predict accurately the ultimate load. However, this conrms that the perforated cross-section for these beams are well of class
4 as classied by ENV1993-1-1 Annex N [5].
Figs. 79 show clearly that castellated beams with intermediate
plates have less capacity of developing a full plastic moment compared
to those without such plates classied as class 3 and 4. The difference
decreases signicantly for class 2 perforated cross-sections and the

ratio PFEM/Py of beam 124 becomes even greater compared to beam

122 as shown from Fig. 9. This suggests that the presence of intermediate plate in castellated beams make them more susceptible to webpost buckling and therefore less ductile. This can be observed from
Figs. 10(a) and 11 representing the von Mises stress distribution of
beams 121 and 122. Comparisons between the predicted ultimate
load values of castellated beams with and without intermediate plates
having the same geometries are illustrated in Fig. 12. It can be observed
from the graphs of this gure and from the test results, given in Table 3,

Fig. 12. Variation of the ultimate load vs. web thickness.

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Fig. 13. Variation of the ultimate load vs. hp/h0 ratio.

that the ultimate loads of castellated beams with intermediate plates

are lower than those obtained for identical castellated beams without
such plates classied as class 3 or 4. It is therefore recommended that
intermediate plates should not be used for thin webbed castellated

beams of class 3 and 4. However, insertion of intermediate plates for

castellated beams of class 2 perforated cross-section increase their ultimate strength. This was observed for all considered castellated beams
with intermediate plates except for those obtained from the increasing

Fig. 14. Variation of VEC3/VFEM vs web thickness.

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113

Fig. 15. Variation of VEC3/VFEM vs yield stress.

thickness of beam 102 in which, their load capacities were lower than
those obtained from beams with identical geometrical properties but
without intermediate plates. Zaarour and Redwood [2] have reported
that the strength of castellated beams with intermediate plates decreases as the ratio of the intermediate plate height to the opening
height hp/h0 increases. They concluded that this reduction in strength
is probably due to web-post buckling. As can be seen from Table 1,
beam 102 has the highest hp/h0 ratio. A limited parametric study is
therefore carried out to study the inuence of the hp/h0 ratio on the
ultimate load of castellated beams with intermediate plates of class 2.
Four of the castellated beams classied as class 2 perforated crosssection considered previously were analyzed by varying the parameter
hp/h0 ratio from 0, for castellated beams without intermediate plates,
to 0.2. The results are illustrated in Fig. 13. It can be observed that in
overall the maximum ultimate load is obtained when the hp/h0 ratio
range between 0 and 0.15. However, little improvement could be
achieved when the hp/h0 ratio exceeds 0.2. The ultimate load could
be even lower compared to the beam without intermediate plates as
was obtained for beams 102 and 104. This drop in the ultimate
load seems to be more pronounced for shallower beams, as is beam
102 in this case.
7. Comparative analysis of the numerical results and the EC3
design specication
Following the parametric study, the numerical results obtained with
LUSAS software for shear strength have been compared with those
using Eurocode 3 Annex N [5] for castellated beams with hexagonal
and octagonal openings of class 2 and 3. The results are expressed in
non-dimensional form by plotting the design to the numerical shear
strength ratio (VEC3/VFEM) in terms of web thickness, yielding stress
and h0/dw ratio as shown respectively in Figs. 14, 15 and 16. The results
show that there is generally a reasonably good agreement between numerical and the ENV1993-1-1 Annex N [5] design method for castellated beams without intermediate plates and castellated beams with
intermediate plates classied as class 2. Even though, the yield patterns
obtained from the numerical analysis do not always agree with the
modes of failure obtained from the EC3 design method. The ratio
(VEC3/VFEM) varies from 0.82 to 1.11, and in overall, the Eurocode 3 results are mostly on the safe side when compared to the predicted nite
element results. While, for castellated beams classied as class 3 with
intermediate plates, a more signicant disparity between design and
numerical results was observed. The ratio (VEC3/VFEM) varies from
1.11 to 1.4, which clearly indicates that the results obtained from the
EC3 design method are on the unsafe side when compared to the

numerical results. Fig. 14 shows that for castellated beams with intermediate plates the ratio (VEC3/VFEM) increases as the web thickness decreases. Furthermore, the ratio (VEC3/VFEM) also increases as the yield
stress increases or as the ratio h0/dw decreases, as it is illustrated in
Figs. 15 and 16. From these observations, it can be concluded that the
difference between the numerical and the EC3 [5] ultimate loads increases as the class of the perforated cross-section approaches the limits
of class 4. The parametric study has also shown that castellated beams
with intermediate plates are more likely to fail by web-post buckling.
Perhaps this might indicate that the approach proposed in the Eurocode
3 Annex N, for predicting critical shear force causing web-post buckling,
has to be modied for castellated beams with intermediate plates.
Experimental investigations are then required to improve the design
method for this type of beams.
8. Conclusions
A nite element model was proposed to evaluate the resistance of
castellated beams with hexagonal and octagonal openings. The numerical results have been validated by comparison with experimental
data available in the literature. A limited sensitivity study has shown
that the model is not signicantly affected by a change of the maximum amplitude of the initial lateral deection taken in the shape of
the lowest buckling mode.

Fig. 16. Variation of VEC3/VFEM vs ratio h0/dw.

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M.R. Soltani et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 70 (2012) 101114

Based upon the results of the present study, within the limited
range of the considered parameters, the following conclusions can
be drawn:
For thin webbed castellated beams classied as class 3 and 4 with
higher height web openings, failure would occur by web-post
buckling with limited plastic zones.
For thin webbed castellated beams with deeper tee-sections, the
less accurate obtained results suggests that failure would probably
occurs by local buckling of the web of the tee-sections and should
then be classied as class 4, which is in agreement with the ENV
1993-1-1 Annex N [5] cross-section classication.
Variation of the ratio PFEM/Py with the cross-section classes suggests that the cross-section classication of ENV1993-1-1 Annex
N [5] is reasonably well dened, although the boundaries between
classes were not dened in this study.
Castellated beams with intermediate plates are more susceptible
to web-post buckling compared to castellated beams without
such plates. The results have also shown that the use of these
plates should be restricted to beams classied as class 2 and its
height should not exceed 15% of the overall height of the opening.
The performed comparative study has also shown that the results
obtained from the design method ENV 1993-1-1 Annex N [5] give
close and safe results compared to the numerical results, except
for castellated beams with intermediate plates classied as class
3, which requires further investigations to improve the existing
design method for this type of beams.
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