Abstract:
LiteSteel (LSB) beams are made of two rectangular hollow flanges and a slender web. Although the flexural
capacity and bending stiffness are enhanced due to hollow flanges, they are vulnerable to the web crippling
failure under concentrated loads and reactions due to high web slenderness values. In current steel buildings,
cold-formed steel sections with web holes have been used to accommodate service ducts in floor systems. These
LiteSteel beams (LSBs) are innovative new sections, hence current web crippling equations cannot be used to
predict the web crippling capacities of them. Keerthan et al. (2014, 2016) and Steau et al. (2015) proposed
coefficients to the unified web crippling equation which is available in Australian/New Zealand standard (AS/
NZS 4600) and North American Specification (AISI S100) for unfastened and fastened supports, respectively for
LSB sections without web holes under four load cases based on their experimental studies. However web crippling
behaviour of these sections with web holes is still unknown under all four load cases. In past studies, the
web holes are classified into two groups such as centred beneath and offset web holes to investigate their effect
on the web crippling behaviour. This study investigates web crippling behaviour of LiteSteel beams with centred
beneath and offset circular web holes with unfastened supports under End-Two-Flange load case (ETF) using
finite element analysis in ANSYS. Accurate validations have been performed for five different web crippling
datasets, and the parametric study was conducted using validated FE models. Web crippling equations were
proposed for LiteSteel beams with centred beneath and offset web holes and without web holes based on 1067 FE
model values.
