Investigation on Shear Deflection Behaviour of Open Web Steel Beams: An Analytical and Experimental Study

Abstract

Shear deflection is a key factor to take into consideration since members with smaller web areas are more vulnerable to shear. As a result, this work focuses on using theoretical, experimental, and analytical methods to undertake a parametric analysis to determine the shear deflection of an open web steel beam under non-uniform bending. The ABAQUS software package was used to analyse a total of sixty nonlinear finite element models, and part of the model’s behaviour was tested experimentally. The flange and web slenderness ratios that distinguish the finite element models were noted using a codal comparison. In addition to the overall behaviour, the shear deflection of various member components was calculated and compared to the shear deflection equation provided by Das and Basole and, Timoshenko and Gere. The findings indicated that load versus deflection plots could be produced analytically and experimentally, proving a good link between the two. The current work presents an appropriate adjustment factor for the theoretical shear deflection equation to compute the precise shear deflection behaviour of an open web steel beam. The accuracy of the proposed formulation is proven by an R-squared (R²) value of 0.999. Additionally, the maximum shear deflection limit for the simply supported open web steel beam under non-uniform bending was calculated as part of this study, along with the impact of the span-to-depth ratio on shear deflection. The investigation comes to the further conclusion that the parametric variation significantly affects the shear deflection.