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Journal of Constructional Steel Research 105 (2015) 119128

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Journal of Constructional Steel Research

Lateraltorsional buckling resistance of cellular beams


Delphine Sonck , Jan Belis
Department of Structural Engineering-LMO, Ghent University, Technologiepark-Zwijnaarde 904, 9052 Ghent, Belgium

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

Article history: The evenly spaced circular web openings in I-section cellular beams have an advantageous effect on the material
Received 3 April 2014 use if these beams are loaded in strong-axis bending. However, not all aspects of the behaviour of such beams
Accepted 3 November 2014 have been studied adequately, such as the lateraltorsional buckling failure. For the latter failure mode, the
Available online 25 November 2014
existing design approaches conict.
Furthermore, the detrimental effect of the modication of the residual stresses by the production process, as
Keywords:
Cellular beams
recently demonstrated by the authors in previous work, was never taken into account.
Lateraltorsional buckling In this paper, the lateraltorsional buckling behaviour of cellular beams is investigated using a numerical model
Residual stresses that was validated based on experimental results. In this model, the effect of the modied residual stress pattern
Numerical simulations was aptly taken into account. Using the results of the parametric study, a preliminary design approach was
Experiments proposed. This approach is based on the currently existing European guidelines for the calculation of the
Abaqus lateraltorsional buckling resistance of I-section beams, but with a modied calculation of the cross-sectional
properties and a modied buckling curve selection.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction New, local failure modes around the openings come into existence,
such as web post buckling or failure by formation of a Vierendeel mech-
Cellular beams are typically made starting from a hot-rolled parent anism around an opening. Furthermore, the already existing failure
section with an I-section. Usually, the parent section is cut according modes for I-section members without web openings will be modied,
to a certain pattern, after which both obtained halves are shifted and such as lateraltorsional buckling (LTB) (Fig. 2). As will be shown in
rewelded (Fig. 1). In this manner, the cellular beam height H will be this paper, the currently existing design methods to calculate the LTB
40 to 60% higher than its parent section height h, resulting in a more resistance of cellular members are conicting and the corresponding
economic material use when the beam is loaded in strong-axis bending. research is incomplete.
This fabrication method was rst used for castellated beams. These During the production of cellular beams, a thermal cutting
beams have hexagonal web openings instead of the circular openings procedure, such as oxycutting or plasmacutting is used for the cutting
which are present in the webs of cellular beams. Different web opening of the web. Later in the fabrication procedure, heat is introduced a
shapes, asymmetric or even tapered members can be obtained by second time during the welding of the halves. As shown in [2,3], this
varying the cutting pattern and the properties of the parent sections will affect the already present residual stresses in the parent sections
from which both halves are made. However, only symmetric cellular in a manner which is expected to be detrimental for the lateraltorsion-
beams will be considered in this paper. al buckling resistance. However, the effect of the modied residual
Due to their economic material use, cellular beams are mostly used stresses in cellular members has not been investigated yet, and was
for applications in which they are loaded in bending about the strong not considered during the different studies corresponding with the
axis, both in steel and composite steel-concrete structures. The use of existing design rule proposals for the lateraltorsional buckling
cellular members in these applications is made even more advanta- resistance (cf. Section 2).
geous by guiding service ducts through the web openings instead of In this paper, the lateraltorsional buckling behaviour of cellular
under the beams, thus diminishing the necessary total oor and build- members subjected to a constant bending moment will be examined,
ing construction height. Additionally, their lighter appearance also considering the effect of the modied residual stress pattern caused
entails certain aesthetic advantages. by the production procedure. A numerical model, validated by
The presence of the web openings complicates the failure behaviour comparing it with experimental results, will be used to study the later-
of cellular beams. A full overview of the failure behaviour of castellated altorsional buckling behaviour of a large variety of cellular beam
beams, which will be similar to that of cellular beams, is given in [1]. geometries. Both the elastic critical buckling moment Mcr and the LTB
resistance MRd will be determined, and a preliminary design rule will
Corresponding author. Tel.: +32 9 2645469. be proposed for both moment values. This design rule proposal ts in
E-mail addresses: Delphine.Sonck@UGent.be (D. Sonck), Jan.Belis@UGent.be (J. Belis). the framework of the current European standard for the calculation of

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcsr.2014.11.003
0143-974X/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
120 D. Sonck, J. Belis / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 105 (2015) 119128

pre-standard, no specications are given with regard to the buckling


h H
curve choice, which renders this specication rather unclear.
Almost all current design guideline proposals for LTB of cellular and
Fig. 1. Standard fabrication method of cellular members starting from a plain-webbed castellated members are based on the 2T approach [1215]. However,
parent section. the buckling curve choice varies between the different proposals. An
overview of the different LTB curve proposals based on the EC3 LTB
design approach, is given in Table 1 [6,16,17]. The boundary of H/b is
based on the currently used selection criteria for the lateraltorsional
M buckling curve choice for plain-webbed members in EC3 (Table 3).
These proposals are based on experimental and numerical results, as
described in each work. For the proposal in [16], a value of M1 = 1.1
M was used, while M1 = 1.0 is now prescribed and was also used in the
later work in [17] and [6]. It can be seen that the buckling curve
Fig. 2. Lateraltorsional buckling failure of a cellular member loaded by a bending proposals vary. Additionally, the effect of the modied residual stresses
moment. in cellular members was not taken into account in any of the described
numerical studies, which makes these proposals possibly unsafe.

steel structures [4], which will be later referred to as EC3. This 2.2. Plausible design approach
research was part of a wider doctoral research about the exural and
lateraltorsional buckling behaviour of castellated and cellular mem- Based on the existing research and literature, it is expected that a
bers, including the effect of the production process on the residual stress plausible design approach will consist of using the 2T approach, i.e.
pattern [3]. using the EC3 design method for LTB of I-section members, in which
all cross-sectional properties should be calculated at the centre of the
opening. Nevertheless it is still unclear what the effect of the modied
2. Existing research for LTB of cellular members
residual stress pattern and the modied geometry on the buckling
curve choice will be. A short overview of this design approach will be
In this section, the currently existing research about LTB of cellular
given in the next paragraphs.
members will be discussed. Based on this research, a plausible design
According to EC3, the LTB resistance of a beam MRd can be calculated
approach will be proposed at the end of the section.
using Eq. (1), using a reduction factor LT. In this expression, fy is the
nominal yield stress, Wy the appropriate section modulus and M1 the
2.1. Existing research partial factor for the resistance of members to instability assessed by
member checks (for which EC3 recommends a value of 1.0). The authors
Due to their increased height, cellular members are more susceptible propose to use the plastic section modulus Wpl,y of the cross-section at
to lateraltorsional buckling than plain-webbed members. This failure the opening for all Wy calculations, using the full plastic moment of
mode will occur for beams of which the compressed ange is insuf- the cross-section at the opening (cf. Section 4.3).
ciently supported laterally. Currently, two design approaches exist for
the LTB resistance calculation of cellular members. However, both LT W y f y
MRd 1
approaches yield conicting results: the rst is very conservative, M1
while the second approach could possibly be unsafe.
The rst approach for the LTB resistance calculation can be found in Currently, two methods are present in EC3 for the calculation of LT.
the design guidelines of CTICM (Centre Technique Industriel de la The General Method, described in Section 6.3.2.2 of EC3 uses the exural
Construction Mtallique) [5]. This approach reduces the LTB check of a buckling curves, while the Specic Method (Section 6.3.2.3 of EC3) uses
cellular member to a lateral exural buckling check of the compressed a modied expression of the buckling curves and takes into account a
tee of the beam (1T approach in Fig. 3). The exural buckling load of non-constant moment distribution. The design method in this paper
the compressed tee can be calculated using the EC3 buckling curve c uses the General Method, because the Specic Method has been proven
[4] and the cross-sectional properties of this tee. Since the stabilizing to be unsafe in some cases [1821].
effect of the part of the beam in tension is completely neglected, as if According to the General Method of EC3, the reduction factor LT is
the torsional stiffness of the beam were non-existent, this approach is calculated according to Eqs. (2)(3). The relevant buckling curve
very conservative [68]. Due to its conservative nature, this approach determines the value of the imperfection factor (Table 2). These buck-
will not be discussed further. ling curves reect the effect of various imperfections such as the
According to the second approach, which will be referred to as the geometric imperfections or the residual stresses on the buckling resis-
2T approach, the LTB resistance of a cellular member can be calculated tance. This effect is most pronounced for intermediate slenderness
similar as for plain-webbed beams, but using the cross-sectional values, as can be seen in Fig. 4. For a specic buckling curve, the reduc-
properties calculated at the centre of the web opening. This approach tion factor can be calculated from the non-dimensional slenderness LT
is based on the experimental work described in [9,10], and is repeated (4), using the elastic critical LTB moment Mcr. For low slenderness
in annex N of the European pre-standard ENV3 [11]. However, in this values, the bending resistance will be determined by the plastic
1T approach: flexural buckling of compressed tee 2T approach: lateral-torsional buckling of 2T-section

Fig. 3. 1T and 2T approach to calculate the LTB resistance.


D. Sonck, J. Belis / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 105 (2015) 119128 121

Table 1 pl
Different buckling curve proposals according to literature, in function of the height-to-
1
width ratio H/b of the completed cellular member.

H/b 2.0 H/b N 2.0

Maquoi et al. [16] a b LT


el
Lakusic et al. [17] b c a
Nseir et al. [6] c c b
c
d
moment of the cross-section, and LT = pl = 1. For high slenderness 0 1 2 3
2
values, the reduction factor LT el 1=LT (Fig. 4), so that the LTB
LT
resistance MRd is equal to the elastic critical buckling moment Mcr.
Fig. 4. EC3 buckling curves.
1
LT q 1 2
2
2 LT both groups of experiments for the validation, the numerical model
will be validated over a wide slenderness range, as can be seen in
Tables 5 and 7, in which the numerically obtained slenderness LT;abq
h   i
2
0:5 1 LT LT 0:2 LT 3 is given. The aforementioned experiments will be described in this
section.

s 3.1. LTB experiments at UGent


Wy f y
LT 4
M cr At Ghent University, the authors executed three LTB experiments on
cellular beam specimens. Additionally, three castellated beam
In this work, only the basic case of simply-supported beams with specimens were tested as well [3]. Only the experiments on cellular
fork-supports, loaded by a constant bending moment, will be consid- beams will be described below.
ered. In this case, the elastic critical moment Mcr can be determined by
Eq. (5), in which L is the length of the member, GIt the torsional stiffness 3.1.1. Specimens
of the cross-section, EIz its weak-axis bending stiffness and EIw its The geometry of the three cellular beam specimens, according to
warping stiffness. According to the proposed 2T design approach, Fig. 5, is given in Table 4, and the measured values of the yield stress
the cross-sectional properties It, Iz and Iw should be calculated for the are given in Table 5. Each specimen had the same cross-sectional
cross-section at the centre of the opening, so that a value Mcr,2T of the geometry, but the length and loading points of the specimens differed.
critical LTB moment is obtained. The slenderness LT of each specimen, corresponding with the load
s setup, is given in Table 5.
2 In contrast with the most commonly used fabrication method

Mcr GIt EIz 2 EIz EIw 5 depicted in Fig. 1, the cellular beam specimens were made by oxycutting
L L
a circular opening around each hexagonal opening of a completed
castellated member. The utilized castellated members were made
The buckling curves that should be used for plain-webbed sections
starting from an IPE160 parent section, by oxycutting the web, shifting
are given in Table 3, with h the total depth of the cross-section and b
and rewelding the obtained beam halves. Due to these supplementary
the cross-section width. The depth-to-width ratio h/b should take into
cutting operations, the residual stresses are more detrimental than
account that slender sections (h/b N 2) are more susceptible to LTB
those measured in cellular and castellated members made according
than stocky sections.
to the standard fabrication procedure, in which the nal geometry is
Using the results of the numerical parametric study, the effect of the
obtained after only one cutting and welding sequence. Both residual
modied geometry on the critical LTB moment Mcr will be investigated
stress patterns are depicted in Fig. 6: the residual stress pattern
in Section 5. Furthermore, the effect of the modied geometry and
proposed for cellular members made according to the standard fabrica-
residual stresses on the LTB resistance MRd will be determined in
tion method is shown in Fig. 6a, while the measured residual stresses in
Section 6.
the specimen with the non-standard fabrication method are depicted in
Fig. 6b.
3. Description of LTB experiments
The proposed residual stress patterns are based on the measured
residual stresses in the anges of the castellated and cellular beams
In this paper, the LTB behaviour is examined using a numerical
used for the LTB experiments, as described in [2,3]. For members
parametric study. The utilized numerical model is validated using the
made according to the standard production method, the ange stresses
results of three LTB experiments executed at Ghent University (later
were observed to be constant along the member length, as depicted in
referred to as UGent) and two LTB experiments executed at the Univer-
Fig. 6a. However, for the cellular members made according to the non-
sity of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland in Fribourg (later
standard fabrication method, the compressive residual stresses in the
referred to as EIA-FR). The former experiments were executed in the
anges at the tee section were higher than those at the web post
framework of the doctoral study described in [3], while the latter exper-
(Fig. 6b), due to the effect of the additional local heat introduction
iments are described in [6]. In all considered experiments, the cellular
beams were loaded in a four-point bending test setup. By considering
Table 3
Buckling curve selection for LTB according to EC3 (hot-
Table 2 rolled sections).
Imperfection factors corresponding with different buckling curves, according to EC3.
Buckling curve
Buckling curve a b c d
h/b 2 a
Imperfection factor 0.21 0.34 0.49 0.76 h/b N 2 b
122 D. Sonck, J. Belis / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 105 (2015) 119128

a w For the longer CS2_L6 specimen, the load and displacement were
still slightly increasing just before the removal of the load. In this case,
b the manual operation of the hydraulic jack made it very difcult to
increase the load further, necessitating a premature load removal.
tf H Even if this resulted in a possible incorrect value of the failure load,
h
tw the results of this experiment can still be compared with the numerical-
ly obtained results before failure, by means of the load displacements
curves, depicted in Fig. 8.
parent section cellular member
3.2. LTB experiments at EIA-FR
Fig. 5. Cellular member geometry.
At the EIA-FR in Fribourg (Switzerland), three LTB experiments were
during the cutting of the circular openings. Since the compressive executed on beams with large web openings. Since these experiments
residual stresses in the anges have the dominant detrimental inuence already have been extensively described in [6], the two experiments
on the global buckling resistance [2224], the measured residual stress- executed on cellular beam specimens will be only concisely described
es in the web are replaced by constant tensile stresses along the tee below.
section web height, of which the magnitude can be determined by
expressing normal equilibrium. More details about the fabrication 3.2.1. Specimens
procedure of the castellated and cellular beam specimens and the The two cellular member specimens each had a different parent sec-
residual stress measurements can be found in [2]. tion. The rst specimen was made from a HEA340 parent section, while
the second cellular beam specimen was made starting from an IPE330
parent section. The measured dimensions of both specimens are given
3.1.2. Experimental setup and instrumentation
in Table 6, while the measured yield stress values fy and lengths of the
A sketch of the test-setup is depicted in Fig. 7. The distance between
specimens are given in Table 7. The cellular beam specimens were
the loads LF and the span of each specimen L are given in Table 5. The
made according to the standard production procedure shown in Fig. 1.
LTB experiments were four-point bending tests executed on simply
The residual stresses were not measured for these specimens. It is
supported members with fork-bearings at their ends. At the two loading
however expected that the residual stress magnitudes will be higher
points, a steel sphere transferred the load from the load distributing
for the HEA340 specimen than for the IPE330 specimen, due to the
beam to the specimen. This load distributing beam was loaded centrally
expected higher initial residual stresses for the more stocky HEA340
by a loading frame welded to it.
parent sections [2].
Through a tension cable connection, the loading frame was pulled
downwards by a manually operated hydraulic jack which could move
3.2.2. Experimental setup
laterally by means of a roller mechanism. Consequently, the loading
All executed experiments were four-point bending tests, for which
frame could move freely in lateral direction and the loading was
the points of load application and the supports were laterally supported.
unrestrained in lateral direction.
At these four locations, the web was stiffened to avoid local buckling.
During the experiment, the load was measured and recorded by a
The circular openings were only present in the central part of the
load cell placed on the hydraulic jack. Secondly, the displacements
beams, since the openings were lled in the high shear regions between
were measured at various locations using displacement transducers.
the supports and the points of load application.
Thirdly, electrical strain gages were used to measure the longitudinal
More details about the experimental setup, instrumentation and
strains above the central opening, to observe more easily when the
loading procedure can be found in [6].
beam started to buckle.
Each experiment started with a preload sequence of approximately
3.2.3. Results
10% of the expected failure load. This way, possible tolerances at the
Again, both members failed in a lateraltorsional buckling mode. The
supports were reduced. After the preload was removed, the beam was
obtained maximum loads Fexp are given in Table 7. A curve displaying
loaded until failure, after which the beam was nally unloaded.
the load in function of the vertical displacement is given in Fig. 9.
Furthermore, the obtained torsional rotation , lateral displacement v
3.1.3. Results and vertical displacement w at mid span, at the moment of failure, are
All members failed in a lateraltorsional buckling mode. The given in Table 8. These results will be used for the validation of the
obtained maximum loads Fexp are given in Table 5. As expected, the model.
failure loads were the largest for the members with the lowest lengths
(and corresponding slenderness values). 4. Finite element modelling and validation
The load displacement curves of each specimen are drawn in Fig. 8,
marked exp. In these curves, w is the mean vertical displacement of Using the validated numerical model, a parametric study was
the two loading points, while is the mean torsional rotation of the executed to study the LTB behaviour of a simply supported cellular
two loading points. The curves clearly demonstrate the plastic
behaviour of the shorter specimen, for which a considerable plastic
deformation is visible after the complete unloading of the member. Table 5
Overview of specimen lengths, number of openings n, measured yield stress (top ange t,
For the other two specimens, the plastic deformation is considerably
bottom ange b and web) and slenderness (UGent experiments).
smaller, which was to be expected based on the slenderness of the
specimens. Specimen L LF n fy,t fy,b fy,web Fcr, Fpl,abq LT;abq Fexp
abq

Table 4 [m] [m] [MPa] [MPa] [MPa] [kN] [kN] [kN] [kN]
Measured dimensions (in mm) of specimens (UGent experiments). CS2_L3 3.15 0.21 15 342 341 329 27.8 74.6 1.64 22.34
CS2_L4 3.99 1.89 19 348 351 339 25.9 104 2.00 23.62
tf tw H b a w
CS2_L6 6.09 1.89 29 342 341 329 8.5 52.8 2.49 6.41a
7.3 5.5 220.0 83.1 142.8 67.2 a
Maximum load not reached during experiment.
D. Sonck, J. Belis / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 105 (2015) 119128 123

(a) (b)
+50 MPa +100 MPa +50 MPa
0 MPa
- - - - - - - -
-100 MPa -150 MPa -150 MPa -100 MPa

H a

res,web res,web res,web res,web

- - - - - - - -
(TS) (WP)
h/b>1.2 h/b 1.2
standard fabrication non-standard fabrication
(WP and TS) measured res cellular beams

Fig. 6. Residual stress patterns for cellular members derived from the results in [2]: standard fabrication method (a) and measured residual stresses in specimens made according to the
non-standard fabrication method (b). Values are given for the tee section (TS), at the opening, and for the web post (WP), between two openings.

beam. In this section, the numerical model used in this study will be The geometry was simulated using quadratic shell elements with
described rst, after which the validation of the model using both reduced integration (S8R) for both the anges and the web, of which
groups of experiments will be illustrated. Lastly, the executed paramet- the element size was chosen after a mesh renement study. The llet
ric study to investigate the LTB behaviour of cellular beams will be between the anges and the web was not taken into account. The
detailed. More details about the numerical study can be found in [3]. boundary conditions and loads corresponded with the classical LTB
setup: a simply supported beam with fork supports loaded by a constant
bending moment. At the beam ends, the bending moments were
4.1. Numerical model used for parametric study applied by means of line loads acting on both the anges and the web.
In the parametric study, only steel of grade S235 was considered,
The LTB behaviour of the cellular beams was investigated numerical- because the most detrimental effect of the residual stresses was expect-
ly with the nite element software Abaqus [25]. For each beam, the elas- ed for this steel grade and a safe design rule would be obtained. The
tic critical moment Mcr,abq of a perfect beam was determined using a material was modelled by a bilinear stress strain-curve without strain
Linear Buckling Analysis (LBA). Additionally, the LTB resistance MRd,abq hardening, with a nominal yield stress fy of 235 MPa and a Young's
of each beam was calculated through a modied Riks analysis. In this modulus of 210 GPa. For the elastic steel, the Poisson's ratio was 0.3.
geometrically nonlinear analysis, a geometrically imperfect beam with For the nonlinear GMNIA calculations, the geometric imperfection
residual stresses and elasticplastic material behaviour was loaded consisted of a half-sine wave lateral imperfection with amplitude L/
until the maximum load was reached, which will be considered the 1000. For the residual stresses, the pattern derived from the measure-
failure load. This latter analysis type is referred usually to as a Geomet- ments in earlier work [2,3], depicted in Fig. 6a, was used [3]. This
rical and Material Nonlinear Analysis with Imperfections (GMNIA). residual stress pattern, constant along the member length, depends on

Fig. 7. Test setup for UGent LTB experiments.


124 D. Sonck, J. Belis / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 105 (2015) 119128

F [kN] CS2_L3 F [kN] CS2_L3


WP
WP
20 TS TS

abq TS abq TS
10
exp exp
0
0 w [mm] -5 -10 -15 -20 0 [] -5 -10 -15

F [kN] WP CS2_L4 F [kN] CS2_L4


WP
20 TS TS

abq TS abq TS
10
exp exp
0
0 w [mm] -5 -10 -15 -20 0 [] -5 -10 -15

CS2_L6 F [kN] CS2_L6


F [kN]
20 abq
abq
exp
10 exp WP WP
TS TS
0
0 w [mm] -5 -10 -15 -20 0 [] -5 -10 -15

Fig. 8. Load displacement curves UGent: total load F vs. vertical displacement w and total load F vs. torsional rotation .

the height-to-width ratio h/b of the parent section. The residual stresses displacement w and the torsional rotation described in Section 3.1.3.
were introduced using a user subroutine. A comparison between the obtained failure loads for the shorter
CS2_L3 and CS2_L4 specimens is given in Table 9. For the longest
4.2. Validation of numerical model CS2_L6 specimen, however, only the pre-failure elastic deformations
can be compared.
The utilized numerical model was validated by comparing its results Overall, a good agreement is obtained between the numerical model
with the results from the experiments described at UGent and EIA-FR, and the experiments. The experimental failure loads lie between the
described below. numerical failure loads obtained using both residual stress patterns, as
expected. For the shortest CS2_L3 specimen, the residual stress pattern
measured at the TS seems to provide the better match, while the resid-
4.2.1. LTB experiments at UGent ual stress pattern at the web post seems to be better suited for the
The model used for the validation of the numerical model was intermediate length specimen CS2_L4.
similar to the model described above used for the parametric study,
except for the adaptations described below. As dimensions, the
measured dimensions from Table 4 were used. For the material proper- 4.2.2. LTB experiments at EIA-FR
ties, the measured values of the yield stress fy (Table 5) and a mean Similar as for the validation study above, the numerical model used
value of the modulus of elasticity E, equal to 205 GPa, were used. The for this validation study was similar to that used for the parametric
boundary conditions were still the same fork-end supports, but the study, with a few exceptions which will be described below. For the
beam was now loaded by two point loads.
It was chosen to take into account the variation in ange stresses
Table 6
along the member length by considering two different patterns for the Measured dimensions (in mm) and yield stress fy (in MPa) of specimens (EIA-FR
residual stresses, both constant along the member's length instead of experiments).
one pattern varying between both, to avoid complicating the residual
Specimen tf tw H b a w
stress introduction in the numerical model. The rst pattern corre-
sponds with the measured residual stresses at the web post (WP) HEA340 16 10.35 470 297.4 345 170
IPE330 10.75 7.75 460 161.55 345 50
between two openings, and the second one corresponds with the resid-
ual stresses at the tee section (TS) at the centre of the opening (cf.
Fig. 6b). Table 7
The applied geometric imperfection corresponded with an LTB Overview of specimen lengths, average measured yield stress fy and slenderness (EIA-FR
experiments).
eigenmode imperfection with amplitude L/1000, of which the shape
was derived for a simply supported member of the same length and Specimen L LF n fy Fcr,abq Fpl,abq LT;abq Fexp
dimensions as the considered specimen, but loaded by a constant bend-
[m] [m] [] [MPa] [kN] [kN] [kN] [kN]
ing moment.
In Fig. 8, the comparison between the measured and numerically HEA340 7.5 5.3 10 (+4 lled) 480 6397 2082 0.57 1977
IPE330 11.0 7.11 17 (+10 lled) 373 233.8 361 1.24 176.9
obtained loaddisplacement diagram is depicted, using the vertical
D. Sonck, J. Belis / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 105 (2015) 119128 125

w w

Fig. 9. Load displacement curves EIA-FR: total load F vs. vertical displacement w.

geometry, the measured dimensions (Table 6) were used and the 5. Results and discussion for elastic critical LTB moment Mcr
vertical stiffeners and lled openings were included in the model.
For the material properties, the measured yield stress values fy Qualitatively, the observed failure behaviour was similar to that of
were used (Table 7), combined with a modulus of elasticity E of plain-webbed beams: all considered beams failed in a pure or predom-
205 GPa. The sideways supports at the points of load application inantly lateraltorsional buckling mode and no pure local buckling
and the supports were modelled by preventing the lateral movement effects were observed.
of the outer stiffener and ange nodes, while the vertical supports First, the obtained values of Mcr,abq were compared with the analyt-
were modelled by preventing the vertical movement of the nodes ical values Mcr,2T, obtained by using the 2T-approach and a wire model
of the bottom ange at the supports. Since no residual stress mea- for the cross-section geometry, which corresponds with the use of
surements were done, the residual stress patterns proposed for shell elements in the numerical model. In Fig. 10, it can be seen that
members made according to the standard fabrication method the analytical 2T approach overestimates the numerically obtained
(Fig. 6a) were used. Finally, as geometric imperfection an LTB eigen- values for the smaller slenderness values LT , rendering the proposed
mode shaped imperfection was applied in the middle part, of which design approach unsafe. A check of the cross-sectional deformation
the amplitude was LF/1000, with LF being the length of the middle demonstrates that this is due to web distortion (Fig. 11). This phenom-
part between both loads. The shape of the eigenmode was calculated enon occurs due to the interaction of local buckling and global LTB [26,
analytically based on the eigenmode shape of the classical case of a 27], which is expected to be more distinct for beams with web openings
simply supported member loaded by a constant bending moment, than for plain-webbed beams [8,12,28,29]. While this phenomenon can
of which the length was LF. be observed clearly during an LBA analysis of perfectly elastic beams, it
A comparison of the obtained failure loads is given in Table 10, while is expected that the effects of plasticity will diminish the importance of
the loaddisplacement behaviour measured during the experiments this unsafety. After all, the failure of the concerned geometries will be
can be compared with the numerical results in Fig. 9. For the latter, governed by plastic yielding instead of elastic buckling. This was already
the vertical displacement w of the centre of the beam was used. In concluded in earlier work [7], and it is conrmed further by the results
Table 8, the deformations at failure are compared. Again, the numerical of the GMNIA calculations in Section 6, where no local buckling effects
model agreed well with the experimental results. could be observed. As a result, web distortion will not be taken into
account in the proposed design rule.
For the larger slenderness values LT (and relatively longer lengths),
4.3. Parametric study an underestimation of the numerical critical moment is visible, caused
by the underestimation of the torsion constant It by the 2T approach,
For the parametric study, the numerical model described in of which the effect increases with increasing beam lengths (cf.
Section 4.1 was used. Six different hot-rolled parent sections were Eq. (5)). It was decided to use a weighted average approach for the
considered, of which the minimum and maximum heights H and the torsion constant It to obtain a better t for the larger lengths. In this
H/b ratio of the resulting cellular members are given in Table 11. The approach, the torsion constant is calculated as the average torsion
opening diameter a = fa.h, the width between the openings w = fw.a constant for a beam with equivalent rectangular openings, as shown
and the minimum length Lmin = fL.H of the beam were varied indepen- in Fig. 12. The best agreement was found for an opening length of
dently (Table 12). The factors fL were determined for each parent 0.9a, which results in an average torsion constant It,avg given by
section so that the slenderness values LT of the corresponding group Eq. (6). In this expression n is the number of openings, L the total
of geometries varied around 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2 or 2.5, with a minimum beam length and It,full the torsion constant of the cellular beam cross-
value of fL of 5. section without opening. The agreement with the analytical expression
Taking into account the geometric constraints given in [5,11], all using the weighted average approach is also depicted in Fig. 10. It can be
feasible 167 geometries from the six parent sections were considered. seen that the agreement is considerably improved for the longer beam
According to the EC3 and ENV3 standards [4,11], all these geometries lengths. As a result, this weighted average approach will be used in
have class 1 or 2 cross-sections, which means that the full plastic the remainder of this paper for Mcr.
moment of the cross-section can be reached before local buckling effects
arise. As a result, it is acceptable to use the plastic moment in the design n:a  n:a
It;avg 0:9 It;2T 10:9 I 6
rule (cf. Section 2.2). L L t;full

Table 8
Deformations at failure: rotation , lateral displacement v and vertical displacement w at mid span.

Specimen Experimental Numerical Comparison experimentalnumerical

exp vexp wexp abq vabq wabq exp/abq vexp/vabq wexp/wabq

[] [mm] [mm] [] [mm] [mm] [] [] []

HEA340 1.88 15.6 74.7 2.36 18.7 70.7 0.80 1.06 0.83
IPE330 4.52 24.5 62.3 4.33 35.4 62.6 1.04 1.00 0.69
126 D. Sonck, J. Belis / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 105 (2015) 119128

Table 9
Experimentally and numerically obtained failure load (UGent experiments).

Specimen Fexp Fcr,abq Fpl,abq Fabq,WP Fexp/Fabq,WP-1 Fabq,TS Fexp/Fabq,TS-1

[kN] [kN] [kN] [kN] [%] [kN] [%]

CS2_L3 22.34 27.8 74.6 23.84 6.3 21.81 2.4


CS2_L4 23.62 25.9 104 23.95 1.3 22.06 7.1
Fig. 11. Distortion of the web during LTB.

Table 10
Experimentally and numerically obtained failure load (EIA-FR experiments). The obtained values of LT;abq and abq are compared with the
Specimen Fexp Fcr,abq Fpl,abq Fabq Fexp/Fabq-1 existing lateraltorsional buckling curves in Fig. 13. It can be seen that
very high reduction factors abq are obtained for the HE320M sections,
[kN] [kN] [kN] [kN] [%]
while the reduction factors for the HE320A sections are much lower.
HEA340 1977 6397 2082 1775 11 This is due to the relatively high torsional stiffness of the HE320M
IPE330 176.9 233.8 361 179.2 1
sections compared with HE320A sections. Nevertheless, based on the
H/b criterion used in the design rule proposals for LTB of cellular
Table 11 members and the original parent sections, one would expect that the
Overview of considered geometries in the parametric study: minimum and maximum ob- results for both parent section geometries would be similar. This devia-
tained heights. tion illustrates that the H/b criterion is ill-suited for the buckling curve
Parent section HE320A HE320M IPE300 HE650A HE650M IPE600
choice. This concern was already voiced in earlier work [31], where
reference is made to the work of Taras [3234]. In the latter works, it
Hmin [m] 0.387 0.450 0.374 0.811 0.847 0.760
is proposed to use a different LTB curve formulation with a mechanically
Hmax [m] 0.487 0.530 0.471 1.014 1.059 0.950
H/b [] 2.0 2.0 N2.0 N2.0 N2.0 N2.0 consistent background instead of just recycling the exuralbuckling
curves which were derived for the exural buckling case, as is currently
done in EC3.
Table 12 The minimum and maximum deviations MRd (according to Eq. (7))
Overview of the independently varied parameters in the parametric study. between the numerical results and the different buckling curves are
given in Table 13. It can be seen that buckling curve c would be well-
Parent sections HE320A HE320M IPE300 HE650A HE650M IPE600
suited for the IPE300, HE650A, HE650M and IPE600 geometries. For
fa 0.8 1.0 1.2 the HE320A geometries, a buckling curve situated between curve c
fw 0.1 0.4 0.7
and d would give satisfactory results, while for the HE320M geometries
buckling curve a could be used.

 
6. Results and discussion for LTB resistance MRd M Rd;abq
M Rd 1 :100% 7
M Rd
Again, all members failed by lateraltorsional buckling, without any
perceivable local buckling effects. For most of the longer geometries, the If only one buckling curve should be proposed for all sections, then
load-deection diagram kept increasing past the critical LTB moment, buckling curve c would overall give satisfactory results, disregarding
due to the stabilising effect of the considerable pre-buckling deforma- the small unsafe deviations for the HE320A geometries and the very
tions [30]. Since no value of MRd,abq could be determined for these large (safe) deviations for the HE320M geometries. However, before a
cases, the corresponding results were not taken into account. denitive proposal can be made, it should be checked whether the
The numerically obtained resistances MRd,abq can be compared with assumed residual stress pattern, based on [2] is also valid for heavier
the different possible analytical values for MRd,2T, obtained using a parent sections than those used for the residual stress measurements.
weighted average approach for It and a 2T approach for the other Additionally, more bending moment patterns should be considered in
cross-sectional properties. For an easier comparison, the numerically the numerical simulations. Using this additional information in similar
obtained resistances will be directly compared with the buckling curves. statistical evaluation as the one performed by Rebelo et al. [20], a
For each geometry, the numerically obtained slenderness LT;abq can be denitive buckling curve choice can be proposed.
calculated with Eq. (4) using the plastic section modulus of the 2T Furthermore, these results can be compared with the results
section Wpl,2T. Furthermore, the reduction factor abq for each geometry presented in [31], depicted in Fig. 13. In the latter work, the LTB
is calculated using Eq. (1), with MRd = MRd,abq. resistance of cellular members was also studied, using the same

comparison with Mcr,2T comparison with Mcr,avg

6 6
=Mcr,abq /Mcr,2T -1 [%]

/Mcr,avg-1 [%]

4 4

2 2

0 0
Mcr,avg =Mcr,abq

2 2
IPE300 IPE600
Mcr,2T

4 4
HE320M HE650M
6 6 HE320A HE650A

0 10 20 30 40 50 0 10 20 30 40 50
L [m] L [m]

Fig. 10. Critical LTB moment: comparison of numerically obtained values Mcr,abq with analytically obtained values Mcr,2T and Mcr,avg.
D. Sonck, J. Belis / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 105 (2015) 119128 127

0.9a Table 13
Agreement between different buckling curves and numerical results.

MRd a b c d

Min Max Min Max Min Max Min Max

HE320A 20.6 2.6 11.6 4.9 5.9 13.8 3.1 30.4


HE320M 2.4 5.2 4.2 16.9 11.5 29.0 22.3 48.6
IPE300 15.4 5.8 9.3 11.9 2.7 18.8 8.1 31.7
HE650A 16.8 2.8 10.5 9.2 3.8 17.1 6.8 31.6
HE650M 14.4 8.3 7.8 15.7 0.6 24.2 11.1 40.2
IPE600 20.2 3.1 12.0 8.2 3.5 14.8 10.5 28.1

a
In this paper, it is numerically conrmed that the already existing 2T
Fig. 12. Equivalent rectangular openings for calculation of weighted average It,avg and design approach is suitable to calculate the critical buckling moment Mcr
corresponding Mrc,avg. of cellular beams. In this approach, the approach for I-section beams
without openings is used, but with all necessary cross-sectional proper-
ties calculated at the 2T section at the centre of the opening. Possibly, an
numerical model but with a different residual stress pattern. In contrast even better agreement could be obtained by using a weighted average
with the modied residual stresses used in the current work, the approach for the calculation of the torsion constant It, using a weighted
simulations from [31] were executed using the original residual stress average torsion constant It,avg calculated in the length-direction of a
pattern in the anges of the parent sections, as proposed by the ECCS beam of which the circular openings are replaced by equivalent rectan-
in [35]. Thus, the inuence of the production process on the residual gular openings.
stresses and the corresponding buckling resistance can be estimated. This 2T approach could also be used for the calculation of the LTB
From the comparison of both sets of results shown in Fig. 13, it can be resistance MRd, although it was unclear which buckling curve to choose.
seen that the inuence of the production process decreases the buckling Conicting criteria were presented in the already existing literature, and
resistance with approximately one buckling curve. the effect of the inuence of the modication of the residual stresses by
The currently obtained results can also be compared with the the production process was never taken into account. In the numerical
different proposals made in literature (Table 1). First of all, it should model used in this work, the results from earlier residual stress
be repeated that the distinction based on H/b does not seem well- measurements were used to propose a residual stress pattern for cellu-
suited for the LTB buckling curves. The selection proposed by Maquoi lar members made according to a standard production method. Using
et al. [16] seems highly unsafe for all sections expect the HEM320 this model, the LTB resistance MRd of cellular beams was studied. As
geometries with their exceptionally high reduction factors. This could already expected, it was found that the residual stress modication
be due to the assumed residual stress pattern in the numerical had a detrimental effect on the buckling resistance. As a preliminary
simulations (which corresponds with the previously described pattern proposal, buckling curve c is chosen for all sections. However, further
used in [31]), combined with the higher value of M1 = 1.1. The buck- experimental research will have to conrm whether the used residual
ling curves proposed by Lakusic et al. [17] correspond with the ndings stress pattern is also valid for heavier sections, and whether the
in this work for H/b 2.0, but are still unsafe for the HE320A sections for proposed buckling curve is valid for a wider variety of bending moment
which H/b 2.0. Finally, the buckling curves proposed by Nseir et al. [6] diagrams.
match the current ndings.

Acknowledgements
7. Conclusions
The author would like to acknowledge Huys-liggers (Venlo, The
In this work, the LTB behaviour of cellular beams was investigated. Netherlands) for the production of the cellular and castellated members
Using a validated numerical model, a parametric study was executed used for the residual stress measurements and LTB experiments at
for a large number of cellular beam geometries. In this study, all Ghent University.
beams were simply supported and loaded by a constant bending Part of the computational resources (STEVIN Supercomputer
moment. The results were used to make a preliminary proposal for a Infrastructure) and services used in this work were kindly provided by
design approach for LTB, based on the existing EC3 approach for plain- Ghent University, the Flemish Supercomputer Center (VSC), the
webbed I-section beams [4]. Hercules Foundation and the Flemish Government department EWI.

LT [ -] modified res (Fig. 6) [ -] original res parent sections


LT

1.0 el 1.0 el IPE300 IPE600


HE320M HE650M
HE320A HE650A

0.5 0.5
a a
b b
c c
d d

0 1 2 3 4 LT [ -] 0 1 2 3 4 LT [ -]

Fig. 13. LTB resistance: comparison of numerically obtained values abq with buckling curves. The left gure was obtained during the parametric study described in this paper, while the
right gure was obtained during a similar parametric study in which the original residual stress pattern was used in the anges [31].
128 D. Sonck, J. Belis / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 105 (2015) 119128

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