Paper Title
Vierendeel Effect and Web-Post Buckling of Cellular Beams Without Web Transverse Stiffeners: Non-Linear Finite Element Analysis
Abstract
Cellular beams are those beams which have circular shaped openings in its web portion. Use of cellular beams
has become very popular now days due to its advantageous structural applications. This is due to increased depth of section
without any additional weight, high strength to weight ratio, their lower maintenance and painting cost. Therefore,
considering the structural performance of the beam, the failures found in the cellular beams, the Vierendeel mechanism and
the local instability (buckling) at the openings and the web-posts respectively, deserve special attention as these are the most
common failure modes. In this paper, investigation has been carried through a numerical analysis, the behaviour of steel
cellular beams without stiffeners at right of concentrated loads or support reactions, taking into account material and
geometrical non-linearity. This analysis is designed to predict through a Finite Element modeling, the Vierendeel effect and
the web post buckling due to the compression force by estimating the corresponding ultimate loads.
Keywords - cellular beams, non-linear finite element modeling, Vierendeel effect, web-posts buckling, ultimate load.