Study of methods for the design of cellular composite steel and concrete beams

Abstract

Currently, with the advancement of welding and cutting technology, steel profiles with circular openings, called cellular profiles, have become widely used as beams. The ABNT NBR 8800:2008 and international standards do not address cellular steel beams and cellular composite steel and concrete beams, which contributes to their limited use. A computer program was developed and validated for the design of cellular composite steel and concrete simply supported beams based on two different methods from the literature. The use of this computational tool made possible a parametric study comprising cellular composite beams obtained from two different rolled steel I sections. In this study, the influence of the geometric parameters of the cellular profile and the influence of beam span in the strength and in the failure mode was analyzed. It was concluded that in many situations the use of composite cellular beams is advantageous in relation to original composite beams.

Keywords:
cellular composite steel and concrete beams; cellular beams; design