Numerical Investigation of Encased Composite Beams with Reinforcements Passing Through the Web Openings

Due to the Vierendeel failure mechanism, steel sections with web openings will have a limited load carrying capacity. Encasing the steel section in a reinforced concrete element, will contribute to a higher load carrying capacity. In the current research, numerical analysis was carried out for three groups of beam models. Each group consists of two beam models, one provided with the reinforcements passing through the openings and the other without any reinforcement through the web openings. Composite beam considered without web openings was taken as a control beam. To select an optimum size of web opening, various dimensions of openings were modelled and analysed using Abaqus 6.14–5. The analysis of beam models which is consisting of two rectangular configuration of web openings, whose breadth (B) is equal to twice the Depth (D), i.e., B = 2D and depth equal to 3.2 times the breadth i.e., D = 3.2B respectively. Also, the square arrangement of web openings i.e., B = D was included in the present study. Through finite element analysis, it is made clear that encasing the steel sections in a reinforced concrete element showed increase in ultimate load carrying capacity. The above-mentioned web opening configurations showed almost similar behaviour under two-point loadings, where the distance between the loading points is 1000 mm contributing to a pure bending region and the shear span for the models is maintained as 900 mm.