Experimental Investigation of Concrete-filled Steel Tube Beams with Transverse Openings
Received: 31 October 2024 | Revised: 22 November 2024 | Accepted: 30 November 2024 | Online: 2 February 2025
Corresponding author: Ali Mohammed Abdulridha
Abstract
Modern building construction requires numerous pipes and ducts for services like air conditioning and electricity, often accommodated by web openings in beams. This study investigates the structural performance of Concrete-Filled Steel Tube (CFST) beams with transverse openings, which can affect their load-carrying capacity and behavior. Eight CFST beams and four Hollow Steel Tube (HST) beams were tested under two concentrated loads, including four CFST and two HST beams with transverse openings. The present research examines how openings impact load capacity, failure modes, ductility, strain, and Energy Absorption (EA) across varying cross-sections and Depth-to-thickness (D/t) ratios. The results show that transverse openings significantly affect CFST beams more than HST beams. The load-carrying capacity of CFST beams was reduced by up to 18.6%, while HST beams exhibited reductions of only up to 3.77%. Ductility and EA followed similar trends, with CFST beams experiencing reductions of up to 20% in ductility and 30.7% in EA. The HST beams showed relatively minor decreases of 2.54% in ductility and 14.1% in EA. The failure of CFST beams with openings was characterized by steel rupture through the openings. The effect of openings increased with higher D/t ratios. Despite the reductions caused by the openings, the overall enhancement in all studied aspects provided by the concrete filling in CFST beams with transverse openings remained significant.
Keywords:
CFST, composite beams, confinement, openingsDownloads
References
M. H. Mohsen and S. N. Mohammed, "The Effective Width in Composite Steel Concrete Beams at Ultimate Loads," Journal of Engineering, vol. 20, no. 08, pp. 1–17, Aug. 2014.
D. Chen, V. Montano, L. Huo, S. Fan, and G. Song, "Detection of subsurface voids in concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) structure using percussion approach," Construction and Building Materials, vol. 262, Nov. 2020, Art. no. 119761.
Z.-L. Du, Y.-P. Liu, J.-W. He, and S.-L. Chan, "Direct analysis method for noncompact and slender concrete-filled steel tube members," Thin-Walled Structures, vol. 135, pp. 173–184, Feb. 2019.
S. Guler and D. Yavuz, "Post-cracking behavior of hybrid fiber-reinforced concrete-filled steel tube beams," Construction and Building Materials, vol. 205, pp. 285–305, Apr. 2019.
A. N. Hassooni and S. R. Al-Zaidee, "Rehabilitation of Composite Column Subjected to Axial Load," Civil Engineering Journal, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 595–611, Mar. 2022.
G.-C. Li, B.-W. Chen, Z.-J. Yang, Y.-P. Liu, and Y.-H. Feng, "Experimental and numerical behavior of eccentrically loaded square concrete-filled steel tubular long columns made of high-strength steel and concrete," Thin-Walled Structures, vol. 159, Feb. 2021, Art. no. 107289.
A. N. Hassooni and S. R. A. Zaidee, "Behavior and Strength of Composite Columns under the Impact of Uniaxial Compression Loading," Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 8843–8849, Aug. 2022.
W. F. Zhang, L. Gardner, M. A. Wadee, K. S. Chen, and W. Y. Zhao, "On the uniform torsional rigidity of square concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) sections," Structures, vol. 43, pp. 249–256, Sep. 2022.
A. Alghossoon and A. Varma, "Rectangular filled composite members made from high strength materials: Behavior and design of columns and beams," Thin-Walled Structures, vol. 185, Apr. 2023, Art. no. 110641.
M. Alqarni, A. Noman, and M. A. Bashir, "Numerical Simulation and Parametric Study on the Moment Capacity of Composite Beam," Computational Engineering and Physical Modeling, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 16–26, Jul. 2019.
A. Al-Nini et al., "Flexural Behavior of Double-Skin Steel Tube Beams Filled with Fiber-Reinforced Cementitious Composite and Strengthened with CFRP Sheets," Materials, vol. 13, no. 14, Jan. 2020, Art. no. 3064.
F. El Ame, J. N. Mwero, and C. K. Kabubo, "Openings Effect on the Performance of Reinforced Concrete Beams Loaded in Bending and Shear," Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 5352–5360, Apr. 2020.
A. Al-Rifaie, A. S. Al-Husainy, T. Al-Mansoori, and A. Shubbar, "Flexural impact resistance of steel beams with rectangular web openings," Case Studies in Construction Materials, vol. 14, Jun. 2021, Art. no. e00509.
L. T. Hussein and R. M. Abbas, "A Semi-Empirical Equation based on the Strut-and-Tie Model for the Shear Strength Prediction of Deep Beams with Multiple Large Web Openings," Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 8289–8295, Apr. 2022.
M. Classen, W. Kurz, M. Schäfer, and J. Hegger, "A mechanical design model for steel and concrete composite members with web openings," Engineering Structures, vol. 197, Oct. 2019, Art. no. 109417.
"Strengthening of RC Beams with Large Openings in Shear by CFRP Laminates: Test Results," in International Conference on Civil, Offshore, & Environmental Engineering (ICCOEE 2012), KLCC, Kuala Lumpur, Jun. 2012.
H. M. Mahdi and R. M. Abbas, "Effect of Openings on the Torsional Behavior of SCC Box Beams Under Monotonic and Repeated Loading," Civil Engineering Journal, vol. 9, no. 9, pp. 2300–2314, Sep. 2023.
S. G. Morkhade and L. M. Gupta, "An experimental and parametric study on steel beams with web openings," International Journal of Advanced Structural Engineering (IJASE), vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 249–260, Sep. 2015.
S. G. Morkhade and L. M. Gupta, "Experimental investigation for failure analysis of steel beams with web openings," Steel and Composite Structures, vol. 23, no. 6, pp. 647–656, Jan. 2017.
L. Jen Hua, H. S. Tang, W. K. Leong, and H. T. Sia, "Behaviour of Reinforced Concrete Beams With Circular Transverse Openings Under Static Loads," JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND APPLIED ENGINEERING, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 1-16, May 2020.
H. Du, X. Hu, D. Shi, and B. Fang, "Effect of reinforcement on the strength of the web opening in steel-concrete composite beam," Engineering Structures, vol. 235, May 2021, Art. no. 112038.
S. Mastan, S. Anandh, and S. Sindhu Nachiar, "Numerical method and validation using ANN of composite steel–concrete beam for optimized geometry and emplacement of web opening," Asian Journal of Civil Engineering, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 1539–1559, Feb. 2024.
Standard Practice for Fabricating Test Specimens with Self-Consolidating Concrete, vol. 04.02. ASTM International, 2023.
Standard Test Methods and Definitions for Mechanical Testing of Steel Products. ASTM International, 2019.
Standard Specification for High-Strength Carbon-Manganese Steel of Structural Quality, vol. 01.04. ASTM International, 2019.
F. Wu, Y. Zeng, B. Li, and X. Lyu, "Experimental Investigation of Flexural Behavior of Ultra-High-Performance Concrete with Coarse Aggregate-Filled Steel Tubes," Materials, vol. 14, no. 21, Jan. 2021, Art. no. 6354.
A. N. Hanoon et al., "Sawdust-Based Concrete Composite-Filled Steel Tube Beams: An Experimental and Analytical Investigation," Journal of Composites Science, vol. 7, no. 6, Jun. 2023, Art. no. 256.
Downloads
How to Cite
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Ali Mohammed Abdulridha, Salah R. Al Zaidee

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain the copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) after its publication in ETASR with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.