STRENGTH AND DUCTILITY OF STEEL BEAMS WITH FLANGE HOLES

This paper presents an experimental investigation, involving twenty five steel beam specimens, on the effects of flange holes on the flexural behaviour of steel I-beams. This study used ASTM A992 grade steel beams. Circular holes of various diameters, ranging form 0% to 48% of the gross flange area are under consideration Based on the experimental results, this research study recommends a design approach analogous to the axial tension member provisions as per the current CAN/CSA-S16.01 standard (1). The comparison of the proposed procedure with the 15% exemption rule as per current steel standard S16.01 (1) demonstrated that the current code provision is unnecessarily conservative for steel grades such as A992 steel. On the other hand, the current code provision may not be adequate for higher strength steels such as HSLA 80 steel, ASTM A913 Gr: 60 and HPS-485W having the minimum yield-to-ultimate strength ratio of more than 0.85.