Structural behaviour of arched steel beams with cellular openings

Arched beams with cellular openings (referred to here as arched cellular beams) are used as roof beams with several practical advantages and architectural-appearance requirements. This paper presents a discussion regarding the performance of arched cellular beams. An experimental program comprising four full-scale specimens was performed. The perforated cellular arched I-sections with hinged-hinged supports under a mid-span vertical concentrated load were tested. Manufacturing, material properties, boundary conditions, and the test setup are discussed in detail in this paper. The experimental investigation was carried out to study the effects of cellular web openings, subtended angles, and radii of curvature. The failure modes and key parameters were investigated. The web buckling resistance of the experimental specimens was calculated using two models from the literature. The analytical model for straight cellular beams proposed by Lawson et al. [1] yielded feasible conservative values for the critical buckling resistance of web posts for arched cellular beams. Finally, a finite element (FE) model is proposed to analyse the behaviour of arched cellular beams. It was validated by experimental results. The FE model accurately predicted the ultimate loads, the critical buckling loads and the failure modes of the tested specimens. It can be used for similar future studies.