Experimental Investigation on the Flexural Behaviour and Stiffener Requirements of Castellated Steel Beam

This paper presents an experimental and analytical study on the flexural behavior of castellated steel beam with and without stiffeners. Castellated beams are steel beams with web openings and they gain its advantage due to increased depth of section without any additional weight. In this paper steel I section ISMB 150 is selected and castellated beams are fabricated such that depth of the beam is 1.5 times greater than the original depth. The beam is analyzed using Finite Element Analysis (ABAQUS) to compare the deflection of steel beam with and without web openings of ISMB 150 section. Two point load is applied and stress distribution and deflection of the beam with and without stiffeners is studied experimentally. From the test results obtained from ABAQUS it is observed that the stress concentration increases at the hole corners along the shear zone and at load application point. Stiffeners are introduced diagonally on the web opening along the shear zone, in order to increase the efficiency of the section. From the test results it is concluded that the castellated beam has a lesser deflection that the solid beam and the shear strength of the castellated beam can be improved by providing diagonal stiffeners along the web openings.