Journal of Constructional Steel Research 70 (2012) 101–114

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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. Bouchaïr b, M. Mimoune c
a
Tébessa University, Civil Engineering Department, Algeria
b
Clermont-Ferrand Université, Université Blaise Pascal, LaMI, Polytech, BP 206, F-63000 Clermont-Ferrand, France
c
Constantine University, Laboratory of Structures and Materials (LMSS), Algeria

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A numerical model is developed to predict the behavior of castellated beams with hexagonal and octagonal
Received 1 October 2010 openings up to failure. The numerical model takes into account both material and geometric nonlinearities. To
Accepted 10 October 2011 initiate buckling, an initial small out-of-plane geometric imperfection, obtained from an eigenvalues buckling
Available online 16 November 2011
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.
Keywords:
Castellated beams
A parametric study is then realized to assess the cross-section classification given in the Annex N and to compare
Cross-section class between the ultimate load behavior of castellated beams with hexagonal and octagonal openings when
Buckling subjected to flexure and shear force. The numerical results have been compared with those obtained with
Imperfection the design method presented in ENV1993-1-1 Annex N.
Tee-section © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Web-post
Ultimate load
ENV1993-1-1 Annex N

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

In steel structures, beams with opening in the web are widely used
to pass the underfloor services ducts (water and sewage pipes, air
ducts, cables etc.). Castellated beams are varieties of girders with gener-
ally 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
significantly 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
identified 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).
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 tee-
sections 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 refer-
ences [2–4].
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

0143-974X/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jcsr.2011.10.016
102 M.R. Soltani et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 70 (2012) 101–114

10 t w ε
Class 2 webs: bwc ≤ qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
 2ffi if l0 > 32twε
32t w ε
1− lo

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

14 t w ε
Class 3 webs: bwc ≤ qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
 2ffi if l0 > 36twε
36t w ε
1− lo

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

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 analyt-
ical approach. For this purpose, a finite element model is developed
taking into account material and geometric nonlinearities. Parametric
studies are also carried out in order to assess the cross-section classi-
fication given in the Annex N and to compare between the ultimate
load behavior of castellated beams with hexagonal and octagonal
openings when subjected to flexure and shear force.
A perforated section is classified according to the highest (least
favorable) class of the:
– Compression flange as it is defined 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:
The notations adopted for the geometric dimensions of the castel-
lated beams with hexagonal and octagonal openings are shown in
qffiffiffiffiffiffi
Fig. 2 with ε ¼ 235 fy
and fy is the material yield stress in MPa.
Cross-sections subjected to bending belonging to class 2 (com-
pact) 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 fibers 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 flange.
– Buckling of the web-flange 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
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

a 0 + b0 a 0 + b 0 eff
l0 = l0 =
2 2
Fig. 2. Geometric properties of castellated beam with hexagonal openings and definition of the length lo.
 M.R. Soltani et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 70 (2012) 101–114 103

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].
design method due to the complexity of the behavior of castellated
beams and their associated modes of failure. At European level, the de-
sign guidance given in the annex N of ENV 1993-1-1 was prepared in
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]:
a Tee-section design method. In this method, the plastic moment
capacity of the tee-sections above and below the opening are cal-
culated independently. Interaction between tee-section resistant

a) Octagonal openings

Lateral bracing
u(x) = 0
Simply supported

Load

Lateral bracing
u(x) = 0

Load
Symmetry boundary
condition w(z) = 0

Web with intermediate plate

b) Hexagonal openings

Fig. 4. Meshing, boundary and loading conditions.

104 M.R. Soltani et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 70 (2012) 101–114

Fig. 5. A Typical first buckling mode shape.

moment and high local shear and axial forces should be consid- moment ratio Msd/Mord and the shear force ratio Vsd/Vord at the
ered. The total resistance to the local Vierendeel bending Mvrd, center of the opening were proposed [8–11].
equal to the sum of the Vierendeel resistances of the top and bot-
tom tee-sections, should satisfy: where

Mvrd > V sd  leff

Msd is the global design moment at the center of the web opening
Mord is the moment capacity of the perforated section
where Vord is the shear capacity of the perforated section.

Vsd is the global shear force which must be transferred through 2.2. Web-post buckling
the opening i
leff is the effective length of the opening; leff = e for hexagonal This mode of failure due to horizontal shearing force and bending
openings. moment at the mid-height of the web-post has been treated by use of
The design formula proposed in the Annex N is based on this column analogies [12,13] or beam analogies [14,15]. In the design
approach. 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
b Perforated section. In this method, the resistance of the critical the following design polynomial equation:
section is calculated for a perforated section. A number of non- MSd n o
2
dimensional empirical interaction curves relating the bending ≤ min C 1 α−C 2 α −C 3 ; 0:6
Mel;Rd

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

Specimens dg (mm) bf (mm) tw (mm) tf (mm) e (mm) h0 (mm) b (mm) hp (mm) n L (mm) fyw (MPa) fyf (MPa)
a
10–1 370.59 69.09 3.58 4.39 58.17 245.87 69.85 0 12 3048 357.10 342
10–2a 417.83 69.85 3.61 3.98 57.66 295.15 69.85 50.80 12 3048 357.10 342
10–3a 376.43 70.61 3.61 4.45 57.91 260.53 127 0 8 3048 357.10 342
10–4a 425.45 70.61 3.68 4.27 58.93 308.10 127 50.80 8 3048 357.10 342
12–1a 476.25 78.49 4.69 5.33 73.41 352.81 101.6 0 8 3048 311.60 307
12–2a 527.81 77.98 4.59 5.36 74.42 403.86 101.6 50.80 8 3048 311.60 307
12–3a 449.58 78.23 4.62 5.35 71.37 302.51 149.35 0 6 3048 311.60 307
12–4a 501.65 77.98 4.69 5.33 68.33 349.75 149.35 50.80 6 3048 311.60 307
10–5b 380.50 66.90 3.56 4.59 77.80 266.20 76.2 0 4 1220 352.90 345.60
10–6b 380.50 66.90 3.56 4.59 77.80 266.20 76.2 0 6 1828 352.90 345.60
10–7b 380.50 66.90 3.56 4.59 77.80 266.20 76.2 0 8 2438 352.90 345.60
a
Beams tested by Zaarour and Redwood (1995)
b
Beams tested by Redwood and Dermidjian (1998)
 M.R. Soltani et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 70 (2012) 101–114 105

Table 2 An analytical method has been developed, for steel and composite
Sensitivity of tested Beams to variation in the imperfection amplitude. cellular beams in cold and fire conditions as part of the ACB design
Specimen PTEST PFEM for dw/ P TEST/ PFEM for dw/ PTEST/ Reduction in optimization study [17–18]. The buckling resistance is verified by
200 (kN) PFEM 100 (kN) PFEM failure load (%) checking that the principal compressive stress, calculated at the bor-
10–1 79.1 73.87 1.07 70.39 1.12 4.71 der of the web-post being verified, does not exceed the principal
10–3 73.84 83.33 0.89 80.56 0.92 3.32 compressive stress resistance as shown in Fig. 3. The location of the
12–1 114.66 123.9 0.92 117.8 0.97 0.05 critical section at a given web-post is determined from experimental
12–3 116.44 111.70 1.04 109.7 1.06 0.02
observations and analytical analysis. The simplified design and resis-
10–5 (a) 92.7 101 0.92 94 0.99 6.93
10–5 (b) 100.9 101 1.00 94 1.07 6.93 tance stresses are derived from experimental and numerical studies.
10–6 94.8 84.9 1.12 79.3 1.19 6.60 The approach proposed by Lawson [19] is based on a compression
10–7 84.4 81.72 1.03 76.86 1.10 5.95 field or “strut” model. The model was calibrated against the results of
Mean 0.998 1.05 4.31 nonlinear finite element analyses. This design method was aimed to
Standard 0.082 0.088 2.91
extend the analysis to the composite beams with asymmetric cross-
deviation
section and circular or rectangular openings. The case of hexagonal
openings was not treated.
where MSd ¼ V hi  h20 is the elastic bending moment at critical web-
t f ðp−2bÞ2
post section Mel;Rd ¼ W yw 6 is the elastic bending resistance of 2.3. Fracture of welded joint between openings
the critical web-post section α = p/h0 is the “aspect ratio” and fyw is
the yielding stress of the steel web.C1, C2, C3 are geometric parameter Web-post with too short mid-depth welded joints may fail prema-
constants. They are determined as follows: turely when horizontal shear stresses exceed the yield strength. To
avoid such failure, the following shear strength criterion, defined in
2 ENV 1993-1-1 Annex N [5], should be checked:
C 1 ¼ 5:097 þ 0:1464 β − 0:00174 β

2 e t w f yw
C 2 ¼ 1:441 þ 0:0625 β − 0:000683 β V hi ≤ pffiffiffi
3
2
C 3 ¼ 3:645 þ 0:0853 β − 0:00108 β
3. Experimental and finite element modeling studies
where
A series of tests on steel and composite thin webbed castellated
h0
β¼ beams with hexagonal and octagonal openings were carried out at
tw
McGill University. The main objective of this experimental cam-
paign was to investigate the web-post buckling and to develop a nu-
and tw is the thickness of the web-post.
merical model capable to predict the buckling failure load. All
Assuming that vertical shear forces Vi and Vi + 1 are equal and the
numerical modelings were performed by using MSC/NASTRAN soft-
lines of the axial forces Ni and Ni + 1 are acting at the centroid of the
ware. Zaarour and Redwood [2] adopted a finite-element model based
top tee-section, the horizontal shear force is determined by consider-
on a single web-post and parts of the beam in the immediate vicinity to
ing the equilibrium equations from the free body diagram shown in
examine the shear buckling of twelve castellated beams. In the model,
Fig. 1 by:
the web-post has been modeled with two-dimensional isoparametric,
membrane-bending quadrilateral elements CQUAD4 taking into ac-
P
V hi ¼ V i   count the nonlinear material properties. A nonlinear finite element
dg −2yt analysis on composite and eight non-composite castellated beams
with two hexagonal openings was performed by Megharief [3]. The
where dg is the overall beam depth and yt is the distance of outer model which consisted of full flanges, web and transverse stiffeners,
flange to centroid of tee-section (Fig. 1). was modeled with CQUAD4 elements. The aim of this investigation
This semi-empirical design method [16] was calibrated against the was to evaluate the effect of geometry and eccentricity of openings
results of load tests and finite element analyses on symmetric non- on shear buckling load. This study has shown that composite beams
composite beams. have significant higher ultimate shear carrying capacities than their
non-composite counterparts. Redwood and Dermidjian [4] have used
the same elements with more refinement meshing to analyze four cas-
Table 3
Comparison of experimental and finite element ultimate load.
tellated beams with identical cross-sections and opening configura-
tions, with only the span varying. The aim of this study was
Specimen Flange Web of the tee-section PTest PFEM PTest/ essentially to investigate the effect of bending to shear ratio. The critical
class class (kN) (kN) PFEM
loads were evaluated by elastic finite element bifurcation analysis;
10–1 2 3 79.10 70.39 1.12 yielding effect was not considered. Because of the slenderness of the
10–2 3 3 58.71 59.65 0.984
beam webs, it was assumed that the beams would fail by elastic buck-
10–3 1 4 73.84 80.56 0.916
10–4 2 4 50.26 56.00 0.897 ling before yielding will occur in the web-post. The failure loads
12–1 1 3 114.66 117.8 0.970 obtained from the FEM analysis were slightly higher than those
12–2 1 3 94.74 95.50 0.991 obtained from experiments.
12–3 1 4 116.44 109.7 1.06 The latest experimental and numerical studies have been carried
12–4 1 4 93.41 92.20 1.013
10–5 (a) 1 3 92.70 94.00 0.986
out to investigate the lateral-torsional buckling of castellated beams
10–5 (b) 1 3 100.9 94.00 1.073 with hexagonal openings [20, 21]. This mode of failure is not consid-
10–6 1 3 94.80 79.3 1.19 ered in this study.
10–7 1 3 84.40 76.86 1.10 Wang and Chung [22] have successfully developed a two dimen-
Mean 1.025
sional finite element model to predict the load carrying capacity related
Standard deviation 0.0866
to the Vierendeel failure mechanism of composite beams with large
106 M.R. Soltani et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 70 (2012) 101–114
Fig. 6. Effect of the geometric imperfection magnitudes on load-deflection curves.
rectangular web openings and flexible shear connectors. The numerical
analysis was performed with finite 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 two-
dimensional 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 nu-
merical analysis agree very well with those of the analytical method
proposed previously by the same authors [23].
The finite element models proposed in references [2,4] were mainly
used to predict the buckling load of a single web-post. However, the
finite element model proposed in this paper is developed to determine
the ultimate load when the governing mode of failure is yield mecha-
nism 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 finite element software LUSAS
version 13.8 [24]. The webs, flanges, 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 flexural deforma-
tions 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 cal-
culation 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 config-
uration of the finite element mesh were determined based on results
obtained from convergence studies in order to provide a reasonable
balance between accuracy and computational expense. The dimen-
sions of elements with the minimum width, located around the open-
ing, 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 finite 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 con-
tinually changing geometry of the beam when formulating each suc-
cessive 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) 101–114
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 Piola–Kirshoff stress
tensor and Green-Lagrange strain tensor referred to the undeformed
configuration. 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 ver-
tical loads acting on the upper and lower flanges 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/flange 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 stress–strain relationship is used. Young's mod-
ulus E was set to 210 GPa and Poisson's ratio was set to 0.3.
The nonlinear analysis is performed with initial small out-of-
plane geometric imperfection built into the model, since vertical
107
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 tech-
niques. In practice, a more practical deterministic approach is gener-
ally used. The displacements from the lowest buckling mode shape,
that result from an eigenvalues buckling analysis on the “perfect” ge-
ometry of the beam, is imposed as the initially imperfect shape of the
beam. Knowledge of the maximum amplitudes of the lowest eigen-
modes is often sufficient to characterize the most influential imper-
fections [25]. A brief study, described in Section 5, is performed to
assess the sensitivity of the beams to variation in imperfection am-
plitude and compared to the test results. Fig. 5 shows a typical con-
tour plot of the out-of-plane displacement corresponding to the
first 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
Newton–Raphson procedure, in conjunction with Riks modified
Arc-Length Method.
5. Experimental validation and sensitivity studies
In order to check the validity and the degree of accuracy of the
proposed finite element model eleven castellated beams, reported
108 M.R. Soltani et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 70 (2012) 101–114
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 sub-
jected on the upper flange, centrically above the web, to a mid-span
point load. The beams were braced such that premature lateral-
torsional and local flange 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 buck-
ling effect. Table 1 presents the designation, details of geometrical
dimensions and the measured steel yield strengths of the web (fyw)
and the flanges (fyf) of the tested beams. The failure of 10 of the tested
beams occurred by web-post buckling. In beam 10–6, flange and web
buckling of the tee-section were observed The failure in beam 10–7
occurred by lateral buckling probably due to inadequate lateral brac-
ing set-up, but after exhibiting a significant lateral deflection at one of
the web-post.
As mentioned previously, the initial geometric imperfection is in-
troduced from the first 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 imper-
fection magnitudes adopted were defined in terms of the clear web
depth between flanges 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 summa-
rized 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 finite element analysis
show that imperfection of dw/200 has a slight tendency to over-
predict the strength of the beam and to under-predict it for an imperfec-
tion 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 finite 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 finite element model can fairly
predict the ultimate load.
The effect of the maximum amplitude on the load versus deflection
was also considered for beams 10–1, 10–3, 12–1 and 12–3. As can be
shown from Fig. 6, the initial imperfection has insignificant effect on
the load versus deflection curves of these beams.
It should be noted that among all tested beams, which are classi-
fied as class 3 and 4, as shown in Table 3, only beam 10–6 failed by
 M.R. Soltani et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 70 (2012) 101–114
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 con-
cluded that Web-post buckling may occur before local web buckling
of the tee-section classified as class 4.
6. Parametric studies
Having the confidence of the model with experimental results, a
series of parametric studies were conducted on the tested beams
10–1, 10–2, 10–3, 10–4, 12–1, 12–2, 12–3 and 12–4. The aim of this
study is to examine the influence of the class of the perforated
cross-section on the ultimate strength and the mode of failure of cas-
tellated 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
stress–strain relationship). These geometrical and material parame-
ters govern also the classification 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
Fig. 9. Variation of normalized load capacity with ratio of opening height to web height.
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 con-
ditions were kept the same as those adopted for the tested castellated
beams. The stress–strain relationship for all analyses adopted is
described in Section 3. On the other hand, in order to facilitate the in-
terpretation of the results, the web and flanges 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 ana-
lyses (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 re-
spect 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 flanges
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 (10–1, 10–2), (10–3, 10–4), (12–1, 12–2) and (12–3, 12–4)
110 M.R. Soltani et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 70 (2012) 101–114

have the same geometries except for the presence or not of an inter-
mediate 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. 7–9 show that the influence of web thick-
ness of developing a full plastic moment on castellated beams is the
dominant factor, while the influence 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 negli-
gible. Figs. 7 and 8 show that the considered castellated beams, clas-
sified as class 2, do not reach their full plastic moment as defined 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 ex-
plicitly 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 influence of shear force. The examination of Figs. 7 and
8 shows that the ratio PFEM/PY decreases as the web thickness de-
creases or as the yielding stress increases. Therefore, these results
agree with the conditions of Eurocode 3 Annex N, which defines the
cross-section classification 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 12–1, classified as class 3, and two identical
beams of class 4 and 3 obtained by modifying the web thickness of
beam 12–1. This figure shows clearly that the spread of the plastic
zone grows as the class of the perforated cross-section is increased
which confirms the accuracy of the cross-section classification 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 mid-
span 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 classified
as class 2 will probably fail by yielding mechanism.
However, this agreement was not achieved for some beams classi-
fied 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 be-
comes 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.
 M.R. Soltani et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 70 (2012) 101–114 111

Fig. 11. von Mises contour plot at failure for beam 12–2 (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 con-
firms that the perforated cross-section for these beams are well of class
4 as classified by ENV1993-1-1 Annex N [5].
Figs. 7–9 show clearly that castellated beams with intermediate
plates have less capacity of developing a full plastic moment compared
to those without such plates classified as class 3 and 4. The difference
decreases significantly for class 2 perforated cross-sections and the
ratio PFEM/Py of beam 12–4 becomes even greater compared to beam
12–2 as shown from Fig. 9. This suggests that the presence of interme-
diate plate in castellated beams make them more susceptible to web-
post buckling and therefore less ductile. This can be observed from
Figs. 10(a) and 11 representing the von Mises stress distribution of
beams 12–1 and 12–2. 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 figure and from the test results, given in Table 3,

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

112 M.R. Soltani et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 70 (2012) 101–114

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

that the ultimate loads of castellated beams with intermediate plates beams of class 3 and 4. However, insertion of intermediate plates for
are lower than those obtained for identical castellated beams without castellated beams of class 2 perforated cross-section increase their ulti-
such plates classified as class 3 or 4. It is therefore recommended that mate strength. This was observed for all considered castellated beams
intermediate plates should not be used for thin webbed castellated with intermediate plates except for those obtained from the increasing

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

 M.R. Soltani et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 70 (2012) 101–114 113

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

thickness of beam 10–2 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 de-
creases 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 10–2 has the highest hp/h0 ratio. A limited parametric study is
therefore carried out to study the influence of the hp/h0 ratio on the
ultimate load of castellated beams with intermediate plates of class 2.
Four of the castellated beams classified as class 2 perforated cross-
section 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 10–2 and 10–4. This drop in the ultimate
load seems to be more pronounced for shallower beams, as is beam
10–2 in this case.
7. Comparative analysis of the numerical results and the EC3
design specification
numerical results. Fig. 14 shows that for castellated beams with inter-
mediate plates the ratio (VEC3/VFEM) increases as the web thickness de-
creases. 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 in-
creases 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 modified for castellated beams with intermediate plates.
Experimental investigations are then required to improve the design
method for this type of beams.
8. Conclusions
A finite element model was proposed to evaluate the resistance of
castellated beams with hexagonal and octagonal openings. The nu-
merical results have been validated by comparison with experimental
data available in the literature. A limited sensitivity study has shown
that the model is not significantly affected by a change of the maxi-
mum amplitude of the initial lateral deflection taken in the shape of
the lowest buckling mode.

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 nu-
merical and the ENV1993-1-1 Annex N [5] design method for castellat-
ed beams without intermediate plates and castellated beams with
intermediate plates classified 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 re-
sults are mostly on the safe side when compared to the predicted finite
element results. While, for castellated beams classified as class 3 with
intermediate plates, a more significant 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 Fig. 16. Variation of VEC3/VFEM vs ratio h0/dw.
114 M.R. Soltani et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 70 (2012) 101–114
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 classified 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 classified as class 4, which is in agreement with the ENV
1993-1-1 Annex N [5] cross-section classification.
– Variation of the ratio PFEM/Py with the cross-section classes sug-
gests that the cross-section classification of ENV1993-1-1 Annex
N [5] is reasonably well defined, although the boundaries between
classes were not defined 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 classified 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 classified as class
3, which requires further investigations to improve the existing
design method for this type of beams.
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