Effect of web openings on the structural behavior of RC beams subjected to pure torsion

Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt

^* Corresponding author: yrasha@yahoo.com

Abstract

In the construction of modern buildings, the presence of openings became a necessity nowadays in order to accommodate the many pipes and ducts required for the different services. On the other hand, the presence of these openings in RC beams affects their structural behavior. One important behavior that needs further study would be torsion. Currently, there are no guide lines available to analyze or design RC beams with web openings under pure torsion. Thus, the main objective of this research is to investigate the behavior of simply supported RC beams with openings subjected to pure torsion. In the first part of this paper, an experimental study is conducted on seven beams subjected to pure torsion loading in order to investigate the effect of the number of openings, the spacing between stirrups, and beam depth. All beams have a constant clear span length of 1800 mm and a constant beam width of 150 mm. The beams have varying opening number and stirrups arrangement as well as varying beam depth in order to investigate the effect of these parameters on the behavior of the beams. Systematic measurements such as the cracking torque, the ultimate torque, the angle of rotation of the beam at cracking, and the angle of rotation of the beam at the ultimate load are conducted for further understanding of the beam behavior under torsion. In the second part of the paper, the experimental results are compared with the numerical results obtained using the non-linear finite element analysis program, ANSYS. Good agreement between the experimental and numerical results is found.