Experiments on H-shaped high-strength steel beams with perforated web

The study conducts an experiment on flexural behavior of H-shaped high-strength steel beams with perforated web subjected to both gradient and constant bending. A total of 12 specimens including narrow flange and wide flange H-section beams were tested, which were made of high-strength steel Q550D and TQ700MCD, respectively. The effects of the ratio of web depth to flange width (h/b), the ratio of flange width to thickness (b/tf), the ratio of web depth to thickness (h/tw), the ratio of hole diameter to web depth (d/h) and the number of holes in the web on the flexural behavior of H-shaped steel members with high strength were investigated. Test results consist of the failure mode, bending moment-midspan deflection curves as well as the strain distributions at the midspan and the perforated sections of H-shaped high-strength steel beams. It was found that the ultimate flexural strengths and the corresponding curvatures of the specimens under gradient bending are all greater than those of the specimens under constant bending. The flexural strengths of H-shaped high-strength steel members with or without holes in the web gained in the experiments were made the comparison with those determined from current designing guidelines of perforated or imperforated steel members. The comparison reveals that American National Standard (AISC 360-16) and North American Specification (NAS) are quite conservative; Eurocode 3 (EC3) is somewhat unconservative; Australian Standard (AS) and Chinese Coding (CC) are somewhat conservative. Furthermore, Direct Strength Method (DSM) is quite conservative, Steel Design Guide Series 2 and Continuous Strength Method (CSM) are somewhat conservative for the flexural behavior of H-shaped high-strength steel beams with perforated web.