Review and Assessment of Design Methodologies for Perforated Steel Beams

Abstract

Designing perforated steel beams is always a practical challenge in steel construction. There are a number of design methods available in the literature for design of these structural members. However, the range of applicability and accuracy of these methods in estimating the resistance of perforated beams is not known precisely. In this paper, an extensive statistical analysis is performed on numerical and laboratory test results to evaluate different formulas used to estimate the ultimate strength of perforated beams. Considered specimens include noncomposite steel beams with unreinforced openings of rectangular, circular, and elongated circular shape. The effect of different parameters including opening size, opening shape, moment to shear ratio, web slenderness ratio, and dimensional limits are discussed. Based on the results, all of the proposed relations are somehow conservative. However, one of the studied equations is found to give more reliable predictions for most of the cases. Finally, a trend analysis is performed to modify the equation presented in ASCE standard and results are verified against numerical and experimental data that showed a good agreement.