Engineering Structures 56 (2013) 2165–2174

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Engineering Structures
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/engstruct

Flexural behavior of RC beams with regular square or circular web

openings
Bengi Aykac a, Ilker Kalkan b,⇑, Sabahattin Aykac a, Yusuf Emre Egriboz c
a
Civil Engineering Dept., Engineering Faculty, Gazi University, 06570 Ankara, Turkey
b
Dept. of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kirikkale University, 71450 Kirikkale, Turkey
c
ERS Construction Company, Kiev, Ukraine

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper presents a study aimed at investigating the influence of multiple web openings along the
Received 20 November 2012 length of an RC beam on its flexural behavior. A total of nine rectangular beams were tested. Diagonal
Revised 15 August 2013 reinforcement around openings effectively prevented premature failure of some specimens due to Vier-
Accepted 24 August 2013
endeel action, the expected failure mode according to bending moment-axial force interaction diagrams.
Available online 29 September 2013
Longitudinal rebars and full-depth stirrups adjacent to openings and short stirrups in the chords pre-
vented beam-type and frame-type shear failures. The length of the plastic failure mechanism increased
Keywords:
in the presence of multiple openings compared to beams with a single opening.
Web opening
Web reinforcement
Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Diagonal reinforcement
Reinforced concrete beam with openings
Vierendeel truss

1. Introduction capacity by providing adequate reinforcement. The majority of

Passage of the pipes and ducts for the air-conditioning, heating,
sewage, and water supply systems, and for the telephone, electric-
ity, and internet cables through transverse openings in floor beams
enables the engineers with a more efficient building design by uti-
lizing the dead space above the beam soffit. The utilization of this
dead space reduces the heights of the bearing and nonbearing
members and therefore the overall height of the building. Conse-
quently, the loads on the foundation and on the load-carrying
structural members are reduced and a more economical design
achieved. Nevertheless, the presence of web openings in an RC
beam reduces its load capacity and increases its service-load
deflections and crack widths. It is desirable to provide an RC beam
with openings with the load capacity and stiffness of a solid beam
with the same dimensions, by proper reinforcement detailing,
which will also counteract the negative influence of the stress con-
centrations around openings and prevent premature failure of the
beam due to Vierendeel truss action.
The studies in the literature mostly focused on developing de-
sign guidelines for new build RC beams with openings, i.e. RC
beams with openings in the original design and construction of
the beam, to provide these beams with sufficient ductility and load
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 318 3574242/1254; fax: +90 318 3572459.
E-mail addresses: baykac@gazi.edu.tr (B. Aykac), ilkerkalkan@kku.edu.tr
(I. Kalkan), saykac@gazi.edu.tr (S. Aykac).
these studies investigated the flexural and shear behavior of RC
beams with a single opening in the entire span or an opening in
each half-span as opposed to the present study, which considered
RC beams with multiple discrete openings. The following discus-
sion summarizes the significant findings of the previous studies.
The tests of Mansur et al. [1] on continuous rectangular RC beams
with a large rectangular opening indicated that the collapse load
decreases and the deformations increase as the opening is located
at a higher moment region of the beam. The cracking and collapse
loads decreased and the Vierendeel action became more pro-
nounced with increasing opening dimensions. Mansur et al. [2]
developed a method for calculating the deflections of RC beams
with a large rectangular opening by assuming that a contraflexure
point forms at mid-length of each chord in Vierendeel mechanism.
This method considers a beam with opening as a nonprismatic one,
where sections with opening have reduced shear and flexural
rigidities.
Tan and Mansur [3] developed guidelines for the ultimate and
serviceability limit states of RC beams with large web openings.
In this study, the cracked moment of inertia was proposed to be
used in the deflection check of the beams. Mansur [4] differenti-
ated between two different shear failure modes of an RC beam con-
taining a small opening. In beam-type shear failure, the failure
plane formed by the diagonal crack passes through the center of
the opening. In frame-type failure, two separate diagonal cracks
form in the top and bottom chord members above and below the

0141-0296/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2013.08.043
2166 B. Aykac et al. / Engineering Structures 56 (2013) 2165–2174

opening. Tan et al. [5] conducted experiments on RC beams with 2. Experimental study
circular openings to investigate the adequacy of the equations pro-
posed by Mansur [4] for different types of shear failures (presented 2.1. Test specimens
in Section 3.3 of this paper). The experiments indicated that the
use of diagonal reinforcement is an effective method in crack con- A total of nine RC beams with a 150  400 mm rectangular sec-
trol of RC beams with openings and the shear forces in a beam are tion and with a span length of 3900 mm were tested. The flexural
distributed to the chord members in proportion to their cross-sec- reinforcement, the opening geometry, and the arrangement and
tional areas as suggested by Nasser et al. [6]. Mansur [7] developed material properties of the diagonal reinforcement around the
a design procedure for beams subjected to torsion in addition to openings were considered as test parameters. The specimens de-
bending and shear by using the skew-bending theory. Mansur noted with the capital letter ‘‘R’’ had no openings (reference
et al. [8] showed that strut-and-tie models provide close estimates beams). The remaining specimens had a total of 12 openings along
for the bending strengths of RC beams with large circular openings. the span. Three specimens denoted with the letter ‘‘S’’ had
Tsavdaridis et al. [9] studied the behavior and strength of steel– 200  200 mm square and three specimens denoted with the letter
concrete composite beams with large circular web openings in ‘‘C’’ had Ø200 mm circular openings. The center of each opening
the steel section. This study indicated the significance of the grade coincided with the longitudinal axis of the beam. In terms of flex-
of concrete confinement on the Vierendeel failure mechanism of ural reinforcement, the specimens were classified as lightly, mod-
composite beams. erately, and heavily reinforced, which were denoted with the
Ashour and Rishi [10] tested continuous deep RC beams with capital letters ‘‘L’’, ‘‘M’’, ‘‘H’’, respectively. Finally, the capital letter
small or large rectangular web openings. The experiments indi- ‘‘X’’ in the specimen notations implies that the respective specimen
cated that the reduction in the load capacity due to the provision contains diagonal reinforcement.
of openings decreases as the openings are located closer to the The dimensions and reinforcement details of the beams are gi-
end supports. Yang et al. [11] tested deep high-strength RC beams ven in Table 1 and Figs. 1–3. As illustrated in Fig. 4, reinforcing bars
with rectangular cross-section and showed that the concrete were used in CLX and steel cables in CMX and CHX as diagonal
strength has a lesser influence on the shear strength of deep beams reinforcement to connect the bottom and top chords and to control
with openings compared to beams with no openings and this effect the crack widths. The diagonal orientation of the cables and rebars
gradually increases as the shear span-to-depth ratio decreases. in the posts increased the shear strengths of the posts and the en-
Diagonal cracks connecting the four corners of the opening to the tire beam. In CMX, the diagonal reinforcement was composed of
loading and support points were found to cause the final shear fail- cable segments of equal lengths (90 mm) connected to each other
ure. Campione and Minafo [12] tested reinforced concrete beams at the top and bottom, while the diagonal reinforcement in CHX
with and without circular openings, having small shear span-to- consisted of continuous cables spiraling around the openings.
depth ratios. The tests showed that the location of the opening in One cable and two cables at each corner of the opening were used
the beam and the reinforcement arrangement influence the shear in CMX and CHX, respectively. Due to the opening geometry, i.e.
strength and behavior of RC beams, significantly. The presence of corners of the openings, the beams with square openings could
horizontal and vertical stirrups in the beam was found to have a not be reinforced with diagonal rebars or cables, which should be
major contribution to the shear capacity, similar to the conclusions oriented diagonally in the posts.
drawn by Minafo [13] for axially-loaded RC members with circular
openings.
Aykac and Yilmaz [14] tested RC beams with regular triangular 2.2. Material properties
or circular openings. The beams with circular openings were found
to have a more ductile flexural behavior compared to the ones with The beams were cast in three different series. Concrete from the
triangular openings. The influence of web openings on the ductility same batch was used in each of the lightly-reinforced (RL, SL, CLX),
and load-carrying capacity of a beam was shown to increase with moderately-reinforced (RM, SM, CMX), and heavily-reinforced (RH,
the increasing tension reinforcement ratio in the beam. SH, CHX) beam groups. Ten 150  300 mm concrete cylinders were
Different from the previous studies, the flexural behavior of
new build RC beams with multiple openings was investigated in Table 1
the present study. Several discrete openings in the span provided Test beams.
a more efficient design for three main reasons: (1) the passage of
Beam Opening Tension Compression Diagonal Concrete
various ducts and pipes for different services is allowed, (2) a reinf. reinf. reinf. strength
more uniform stress distribution along the span is achieved as (MPa)
Amount Ratio
opposed to beams with a single opening in the span or each
half-span, and, (3) the presence of openings in the flexure-critical RL – 2Ø6 & 0.0036 2Ø8 – 22
2Ø10
portions (midspan) of the beam as well as the shear-critical por-
RM – 2Ø6 & 0.0061 2Ø8 – 20
tions (shear spans) creates a more ductile behavior since flexure 4Ø10
is involved in the final failure. The presence of several openings RH – 2Ø6 & 0.0098 2Ø8 – 21
in the beam, the opening geometry, the use of diagonal reinforce- 7Ø10
SL Square 2Ø8 & 0.0045 2Ø8 – 22
ment around openings, and the longitudinal reinforcement ratio
2Ø10
were the main test parameters of the tests carried out within SM Square 2Ø8 & 0.0070 2Ø8 – 20
the scope of the study. The effects of the location, spacing, and 4Ø10
dimensions of the openings were not investigated. The test re- SH Square 2Ø8 & 0.0111 2Ø8 – 21
sults acquired in the study were analyzed using the theoretical 7Ø10
CLX Circular 2Ø8 & 0.0045 2Ø8 2Ø10 22
models in the literature. The results of the present study are
2Ø10
not directly applicable to old build RC beams with openings since CMX Circular 2Ø8 & 0.0070 2Ø8 Cable 20
the additional stresses associated with drilling holes into existing 4Ø10
beams result in a different beam behavior compared to the new CHX Circular 2Ø8 & 0.0111 2Ø8 Continuous 21
build RC beams with openings. 7Ø10 Cable
 B. Aykac et al. / Engineering Structures 56 (2013) 2165–2174 2167

400 mm
Fig. 1. Reference beams.

150
2 2x6Ø6/40

200
150
Fig. 2. Beams with square openings.

150
2 2x6Ø6/40

200
150

Fig. 3. Beams with circular openings.

Beams CMX and CHX Beam CLX

19
6
Ø10 cable
52

48

2Ø10
CMX L=90 (segmental)
6 bars
19 CHX L=660 (continuous)

Fig. 4. Diagonal reinforcement details.

cast for each concrete batch and tested at the 28th day for com- The yield strengths of the Ø8–Ø10 bars and the cables were
pressive strength. The average compressive strength values ob- measured as 480 MPa and 450 MPa, respectively. The Ø6 and Ø4
tained from these ten tests are tabulated in Table 1. bars had an average yield strength of 520 MPa.
2168 B. Aykac et al. / Engineering Structures 56 (2013) 2165–2174

Load Frame
Hydr.
Load Cell Cylinder
Secondary
Spreader Beam Main Spreader
Beam
D1

1
D7
D

9
D1

10
D

D8
D
5

6
4

D2* Test Beam D D3

* - LVDT

Fig. 5. Test setup.

2.3. Test setup and test procedure

Tests were conducted in a 200 kN capacity steel frame. Speci-

mens were simply supported and symmetrically loaded at four
points with the loading points located at 0.3 m and 1.2 m on either
side of midspan. The load from a hydraulic cylinder was equally
distributed to the four loading points with the help of a main
and two secondary steel spreader beams (Fig. 5). Six-point bending
condition (two support and four loading points) was adapted to
Fig. 7. Plastic failure mechanism of beams with square openings.
approximate the bending moment distribution in a beam imposed
to uniform distributed loading across the span, which is the most
reference beams (RL, RM, and RH) failed in a tension-controlled
common loading condition under real circumstances. Applied load
flexural mode after yielding of tension steel. The beam failure
was measured with the help of a load cell and LVDT’s were used for
was caused by crushing of compression concrete and buckling of
measuring the vertical deflections at midspan, settlements at the
compression bars (Fig. 6). A limited number of diagonal cracks in
end supports, and shear deformations at critical parts of the beam
the vicinity of supports did not influence the failure.
(opening locations). Fig. 5 illustrates the locations of these measur-
The flexural behavior of beams with square openings was ob-
ing devices.
served to be deeply affected by the reinforcement ratio. The
Special attention was paid to achieve equal and concentric load-
lightly-reinforced beam (SL) failed in a tension-controlled flexural
ing at four load points. The deviations from this uniform loading
mode due to formation of several flexural cracks in the tension
due to the excessive unsymmetrical deformations in the plastic
zone and crushing of concrete at and around midspan. The diago-
phases of the tests were at ignorable levels. The beams were loaded
nal cracks at the corners of the openings did not cause pronounced
up to failure and the measured data was recorded by a computer-
reduction in the load-carrying capacity of the beam. As the applied
ized data acquisition system. The propagation of cracks was
load increased, the top and bottom chords were observed to be-
marked and the crack widths measured at different load levels.
have as two separate beams, since tension cracks were detected
at the bottom of the top chord.
3. Test results and analysis The behavior of the moderately- and heavily-reinforced beams
(SM and SH), which was different from the behavior of SL, is best
3.1. Failure modes understood by using the plastic failure/limit theory. This theory
suggests that a beam fails after the formation of a sufficient num-
The experiments indicated that the amount of tension rein- ber of hinges depending on the degree of redundancy. In all beams
forcement had a pronounced effect on beam behavior. Therefore, except SM and SH, this mechanism is formed when hinging took
the beams were examined in three groups: the lightly-reinforced place at a section close to midspan when the bending capacity of
ones (RL, SL, and CLX); moderately-reinforced ones (RM, SM, and the beam is reached at that section. However, beams SM and SH
CMX); and heavily-reinforced ones (RH, SH, and CHX). All of the failed due to the formation of a plastic mechanism with four hinges

(a) Beam RL (b) Beam RH

Fig. 6. Tension-controlled flexural failures of the reference beams.
 B. Aykac et al. / Engineering Structures 56 (2013) 2165–2174 2169

(a) Beam CMX (b) Beam CHX

Fig. 8. Beam-type flexural failure of beams with circular openings.

a - Angleof
Deviation
a

240 240
RH RH
SH SH
180 CHX CHX
180
P (kN)

P (kN)

120 120

60 60

0 0
0.00 0.03 0.06 0.09 0.12 0.00 0.03 0.06 0.09 0.12

a (rad) a (rad)
(a) LVDT D4 (b) LVDT D5

240 240
RH RH
SH SH
180 CHX CHX
180
P (kN)
P(kN)

120 120

60 60

0 0
0.00 0.06 0.12 0.18 0.24 0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03

a (rad) a (rad)

(c) LVDT D6 (d) LVDT D7

Fig. 9. Load–strain curves of the heavily-reinforced specimens.

in the chords, indicating the Vierendeel action at failure as previ-
ously pointed out by Mansur et al. [1] and Mansur and Tan [15].
Mansur et al. [1] showed that the hinges form at the ends of the
top and bottom chords in a beam with a single large rectangular
opening and the contraflexure points, where reversal of curvature
takes place, are located at approximately midspan of these chords.
In SM and SH, the four plastic hinges of the failure mechanism
were shown to form in four different chord members (Fig. 7).
Two of the hinges formed at the ends of the top and bottom chords
bordering the opening closest to the end support. The remaining
two hinges formed at the top and bottom of the post between
the third and fourth openings (Fig. 7). Therefore, reversal of curva-
ture took place over a longer distance compared to a beam with a
single opening. The posts inside the failure mechanism failed in
shear and hinging occurred at the ends of the posts due to extreme
shear deformations in the failure mechanism (Fig. 7).
Beams with circular openings failed in a tension-controlled flex-
ural mode resulting from the crushing of concrete and buckling of
2170 B. Aykac et al. / Engineering Structures 56 (2013) 2165–2174

120 200
CMX
CLX
SL 160
RM
80

Load (kN)
Load (kN)
120
RL
SM
80
40
40

0 0
0 70 140 210 280 0 80 160 240 320

Midspan Deflection (mm) Midspan Deflection (mm)

(a) Lightly-reinforced (b) Moderately-reinforced

240
CHX
180
RH
Load (kN)

120
SH
60

0
0 40 80 120 160 200
Midspan Deflection (mm)
(c) Heavily-reinforced

Fig. 10. Load–deflection curves of the specimens.

Table 2
Ductilities and rigidities of the specimens.

Beam Deformation ductility index Rigidity (kN/mm) Failure mode

Absolute Relative Absolute Relative
The present study
RL 10.59 1.00 2.93 1.00 Beam-type
SL 10.17 0.96 1.19 0.41 Beam-type
CLX 14.48 1.37 2.73 0.93 Beam-type
RM 11.14 1.00 5.67 1.00 Beam-type
SM 5.56 0.50 2.61 0.46 Vierendeel Action
CMX 12.70 1.14 4.83 0.85 Beam-type
RH 6.97 1.00 9.16 1.00 Beam-type
SH 4.78 0.69 3.77 0.39 Vierendeel Action
CHX 4.59 0.66 5.75 0.60 Beam-type
Aykac and Yilmaz [11]
TS 10.03 0.94 2.77 0.90 Beam-type
TN 5.07 0.46 4.98 0.88 Vierendeel action
TB 10.09 – 8.14 0.89 Vierendeel action

the compression bars (Fig. 8) and no Vierendeel action was ob-
served. The diagonal cracks around the openings did not cause
reductions in the load capacities of the beams due to the use of
diagonal reinforcement. The flexural cracks in the beams extended
through the entire depth of the bottom chords indicating that no
compressive strains formed in the bottom chords. Unlike beam
SL, the bottom and top chords did not behave as two separate
beams and the entire beam behaved as a solid beam. Despite the
large diameters of openings, the solid beam behavior of the beams
can be attributed to the effect of the use of circular openings in-
stead of rectangular ones as well as the presence of diagonal rein-
forcement around the openings. Previously, Mansur and Hasnat
[16] considered circular openings as small openings irrespective
of the opening size. The less pronounced effect of the circular open-
ings on the beam-type behavior is also related to the decrease in
the stress concentration around the openings due to the lack of
sharp corners.
In SM and SH, the edges of the opening, which were perpendic-
ular to each other at the beginning, ceased to be perpendicular
(Fig. 7) as the tests proceeded. This deviation can be attributed to
shear failure of the posts (Fig. 7), caused by hinging at the post-
chord connections. Fig. 9 illustrates the angles of deviation of the
heavily-reinforced specimens at four LVDT locations (D4, D5, D6,
and D7 in Fig. 5). The angle of deviation, which was used as an indi-
cator of the shear deformations around the openings in the present
study, is the change in the angle between the horizontal and verti-
 B. Aykac et al. / Engineering Structures 56 (2013) 2165–2174 2171

Table 3
Analytical and experimental load values.

Beam Balanced reinf. ratio (qb) Ultimate load (kN) Pex/Pan Pex/PACI Neutral axis depth (mm)
Test Pex Todes. Pan ACI 318 PACI
The present study RL 0.025 76.3 62.3 60.0 1.22 1.27 36.3
RM 0.025 146.0 100.0 97.8 1.46 1.49 63.0
RH 0.021 210.0 152.1 152.3 1.38 1.38 95.7
SL 0.028 63.1 71.9 70.1 0.88 0.90 50.1
SM 0.023 69.9 107.0 106.1 0.65 0.66 71.4
SH 0.023 102.1 159.2 159.5 0.64 0.64 100.5
CLX 0.028 70.2 71.9 70.1 0.98 1.00 50.1
CMX 0.023 137.4 107.0 106.1 1.28 1.29 71.4
CHX 0.023 221.1 159.2 159.5 1.39 1.39 100.5
Aykac and Yilmaz [11] TS 0.028 64.2 71.9 70.1 0.89 0.92 50.1
TN 0.023 136.5 107.0 106.1 1.28 1.29 71.4
TB 0.023 167.3 159.2 159.5 1.05 1.05 100.5

Table 4 lar openings. This can be primarily attributed to the relatively

Shear force and shear strength calculations. smaller areas of the circular openings (Ø200 mm) compared to
Beam Beam-type failure Frame-type failure
the square ones (200  200 mm). Secondly, the diagonal reinforce-
ment surrounding the openings and the decrease in the stresses
Vn (kN) Vu (kN) Top chord Bottom chord
due to the lack of sharp corners in circular openings may have re-
ACI AIJ Vnt (kN) Vut (kN) Vnb (kN) Vub (kN) sulted in a more rigid flexural behavior in beams with circular
RL 162.9 – 38.2 – – – – openings. The rigidity of the lightly-reinforced CLX is only 7% smal-
RM 162.9 – 73.0 – – – – ler than the lightly-reinforced solid reference beam (RL). The de-
RH 164.6 – 105 – – – –
crease in the rigidity due to circular openings can be seen to
SL 107.5 74.8 31.6 37.9 15.8 37.9 15.8
SM 107.9 73.8 34.9 37.5 17.8 37.5 17.8 increase with increasing reinforcement ratio (Table 2).
SH 109.1 74.9 51.0 37.7 25.5 37.7 25.5 A similar trend was observed in the ductilities of the specimens.
CLX 203.9 131.0 35.1 86.1 17.6 86.1 17.6 Table 2 indicates that the l values of the beams with circular open-
CMX 156.1 107.2 68.7 61.6 34.4 61.6 34.4 ings significantly exceeded the ones of the beams with square
CHX 205.5 131.2 110.6 85.9 55.3 85.9 55.3
openings. The l values of CLX and CMX are even greater than the
l values of their respective reference beams. Fig. 10 indicates that
in all lightly-, moderately-, and heavily-reinforced beam groups,
cal directions and shows the distortions in the opening geometry
the energy absorption capacity of the beam with circular openings
during the test. In CHX, prevention of Vierendeel action can be seen
significantly exceeded the energy absorption capacities of the ref-
to result in reductions in the shear strains in the posts. The smaller
erence beam and the beam with square openings. The energy
angle of deviation measurements in CHX also indicates that diago-
absorption capacities of SM and SH remained below their reference
nal reinforcement is an effective method for preventing shear fail-
beams (Fig. 10) and the l values of beams with square openings
ure of the posts and distortions in the initial configurations of the
were smaller than the values of the respective reference beams
openings. The openings of SH underwent significant distortions at
in all specimen groups (Table 2) due to the premature failure of
all measurement locations.
these beams due to Vierendeel action.

3.2. Ductilities and rigidities

The load-midspan deflection curves of the specimens are illus-
trated in Fig. 10. Table 2 tabulates the deformation ductility indices
(l) and the rigidities of the specimens. l is the ratio of the midspan
deflection at an applied load of 85% of the ultimate load to the mid-
span deflection at yielding of the tension reinforcement and it
shows the deformation capacity of a beam with no significant loss
(15%) in the load capacity. The tabulated rigidity values correspond
to the slope of the initial linear portion of the load–deflection curve
up to yielding. Since determining the slope of the moment–curva-
ture graph is more cumbersome in RC beams, the slopes of the
load–deflection curves were adapted as the rigidity measure. Ta-
ble 2 gives the absolute values of the ductility and rigidity mea-
sures together with the relative values, which correspond to the
ratio of the absolute value of a beam to the absolute value of the
reference beam of the respective beam group. In addition to the
measures tabulated in Table 2, the areas under the load–deflection
curves of the specimens in Fig. 10 will be used as a ductility mea-
sure, since these areas show the energy absorption capacities of the
specimens.
The provision of openings results in significant reductions in the
rigidity of a beam. Table 2 indicates that the beams with square
openings had smaller rigidities compared to the beams with circu-
3.3. Ultimate loads
Table 3 tabulates the experimental ultimate loads (Pex) of the
specimens together with the analytical ultimate loads calculated
from the rectangular stress block analysis of ACI 318-05M [17]
code (PACI) and from the Todeschini [18] stress–strain model
(Pan). All of the reference beams failed at loads much greater than
the analytical values calculated from both models, indicating that
the beams reached their flexural capacities. The beams with square
openings failed at loads smaller than their flexural capacities. Ta-
ble 3 indicates that the failure of SM and SH due to Vierendeel ac-
tion caused a reduction of approximately 35% in the load capacity
of each beam. Accordingly, the premature failure of a beam with
openings due to Vierendeel action results in reductions in its load
capacity, ductility, and rigidity. Beam SL reached higher load levels
(Table 3) since the failure of the beam was caused by the flexural
failures of the top and bottom chords rather than the formation
of a mechanism.
The beams with circular openings failed at loads equal to or
above their flexural capacities. The presence of diagonal reinforce-
ment prevented the Vierendeel action and helped the beams to
reach their flexural capacities. The Pex/Pan and Pex/PACI ratios can
be seen to increase with the increasing flexural reinforcement ratio
2172 B. Aykac et al. / Engineering Structures 56 (2013) 2165–2174

Midspan
Hinging Location

1 3

2 4

(a) Hinging Location

Axial Force (kN) Axial Force (kN)

298.6 278.5

3 (95.3;6.2) 3
(105.5;6.5) (105.5;6.5) (95.3;6.2)
1 1
0 3.7 0 3.7 9.2
3.7 5.1 Bending 3.7 Bending
2 2
63.1 4 Moment 61.3 Moment
(kN.m) 4 (kN.m)

(b) Beam SL (c) Beam SM

Axial Force (kN)

288.5 Axial Force (kN)

298.6

3
(100.4;6.4)
(100.4;6.4) (105.5;6.5) 3
1
(105.5;6.5)
0 3.7 10.7 1
3.7 Bending 0 3.7
2 62.2 Moment 3.7 5.1 Bending
2
(kN.m) 63.1 Moment
4 4 (kN.m)

(d) Beam SH (e) Beam CLX

Axial Force (kN) Axial Force (kN)

288.5 3
278.5

3 (100.4;6.4)
1 (100.4;6.4)
(95.3;6.2) 1 (95.3;6.2) 3.7 0 3.7 10.7
3.7 0 3.7 9.2 Bending
62.2 Moment
Bending 2 (kN.m)
Moment
2 61.3 (kN.m)

4 4

(f) Beam CMX (g) Beam CHX

Fig. 11. Hinging locations and interaction diagrams.

in beams with circular openings. Table 3 also tabulates the bal- type failure and frame-type failure. In beam-type failure, a beam
anced reinforcement ratios and the neutral axis depths of the is assumed to fail due to a single crack extending through its entire
beams. The neutral axis depth values in the table correspond to depth. Two different equations were used to estimate the nominal
the stress distribution at the ultimate load obtained from Todeschi- shear strengths of the beams in beam-type shear failure. The fol-
ni [18] model. In all beams, the concrete compression block can be lowing formula was developed by Mansur [4] using the traditional
seen to remain in the top chord and not to be affected from the ACI approach for shear:
openings. qffiffiffiffi
Am  fym
In the present study, none of the specimens failed in shear. Pre- V n ¼ 0:17  fc0  b  ðd  do Þ þ  ðdm  do Þ þ Ad  fyd  sin a
s
viously, Mansur [4] established that beams containing transverse
ð1Þ
openings are prone to two different shear failure modes: beam-
 B. Aykac et al. / Engineering Structures 56 (2013) 2165–2174
where fc0 , compressive strength of concrete; b, beam width; d, effec-
tive depth; do, diameter of the circular opening or depth of the rect-
angular opening; dv, distance between the centroids of the topmost
and bottommost layers of longitudinal reinforcement; s, stirrup
spacing; Av, cross-sectional area of the stirrups; Ad, cross-sectional
area of the diagonal reinforcement within the failure surface; fyv
and fyd, yield strengths of the stirrups and diagonal reinforcement,
respectively; and a, angle of inclination of the diagonal reinforce-
ment to the beam axis. The second formula is given by the Japanese
AIJ Standard [19] for beams with a small opening:
"   #
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
0:092  ku  kp  ðfc0 þ 17:7Þ 1:61  do
Vn ¼ M
 1  þ 0:846 q 0 f
w ym
Vd
þ 0:12 h said to be a very effective method in preventing the beams from
 b  dm
where h, beam height; ku, a factor accounting for the size effects in
shear, varying between 0.72 and 1.0; kp, a factor accounting for the
amount of longitudinal reinforcement in the beam; M and V, bend-
ing moment and shear force at the section considered; q0w , web
reinforcement ratio within the distance dv. kp and q0w are obtained
from the following equations:
 0:23
100  As
kp ¼ 0:82 
bd
Am  ðsin a þ cos aÞ
q0w ¼
b  dm
where As, cross-sectional area of tension reinforcement. In Eq. (4), Av
includes both the stirrups and the diagonal reinforcement. In the
present study, the M and V values corresponding to the center of
the opening closest to the beam end were used in Eq. (2).
The frame-type failure, takes place when the top and bottom
chords fail due to formation two independent shear cracks above
and below the opening. Previously, Mansur [4] suggested that
the shear strength of each chord member should be checked
against the maximum shear force induced to the member. Based
on the study of Nasser et al. [6], the shear force was assumed to
be distributed to the chords according to the following formula:
At
V ut ¼ V u 
At þ Ab
Ab
V ub ¼ V u 
At þ Ab
where At and Ab, areas of the top and bottom chords; Vu, applied
shear force; Vut and Vub, shear forces at top and bottom chords. Ta-
ble 4 tabulates the nominal shear strengths of the beam calculated
from Eqs. (1) and (2) and the nominal shear strengths of the chords
calculated from Eq. (1). Furthermore, the greatest shear forces in the
beam and the chords at failure are also given. The values indicate
that in none of the beams, the shear forces were large enough to re-
sult in failure of the beam or any chord before flexural failure.
As stated earlier, beams with square openings behaved like a
Vierendeel truss and failed after formation of plastic hinges at
the locations illustrated in Figs. 7 and 11a. The directions of the ax-
ial forces and bending moments at the hinges are illustrated in
Fig. 11a. Axial forces in the hinges are obtained from the following
equation [3]:
Mm
Nb ¼ Nt ¼
z
where Nt and Nb, axial forces in the top and bottom chords; Mm,
bending moment at the hinge location; z, distance between the
chord centers. Fig. 11b–g illustrate the interaction diagrams of the
2173
beams together with the points corresponding to the moments
and axial forces at hinges at failure. It can be seen that in all spec-
imens one or more points fall outside the envelopes, implying hing-
ing at the respective locations. Nevertheless, no hinging occurred in
the chords in beams with circular openings. This implies that the
diagonal reinforcement prevented hinging in the chords although
the amount of main reinforcement and stirrups was not adequate
to prevent hinging. In SM and SH, plastic hinges formed in the
chords as suggested by the diagrams. The amount of reinforcement
in the beams with square openings was not adequate to prevent
Vierendeel action before reaching the ultimate capacity. Therefore,
providing diagonal reinforcement to beams with openings can be
failing prematurely below their flexural capacities.
ð2Þ
3.4. Comparison with the previous experimental results
Previously, Aykac and Yilmaz [14] tested RC beams with multi-
ple triangular openings. These beams had the same dimensions as
the specimens of the present study. Beams TS, TN, and TB of Aykac
and Yilmaz [14] were lightly-, moderately-, and heavily-reinforced,
respectively. TS, TN, and TB were identical to the beams SL, SM, and
SH of the present study, respectively, in longitudinal reinforcement
ð3Þ details and concrete compressive strength. The beams did not con-
tain diagonal reinforcement around the openings. TS, TN, and TB
had 15 equilateral triangular openings with edges of 231 mm along
ð4Þ the span.
The experimental results obtained by Aykac and Yilmaz [14] are
presented in Tables 2 and 3 together with the present test results.
Table 2 shows that the ductility values of the beams with triangu-
lar openings remained below the ones with square or circular
openings. Nevertheless, the initial rigidities of these beams ex-
ceeded the rigidities of the beams with square or circular openings,
since the triangular openings had smaller areas compared to the
square and circular openings. Finally, Table 3 shows that the beams
with triangular openings reached ultimate loads greater than the
specimens with square openings and smaller than the specimens
with circular openings in all of the lightly-, moderately-, and heav-
ily-reinforced groups, although TN and TB failed in Vierendeel
action.
ð5aÞ
4. Summary and conclusions
ð5bÞ
Nine rectangular RC beams were tested to failure to investigate
the influence of web openings on the flexural behavior of RC
beams. The specimens comprised three different groups: lightly-;
moderately-; and heavily-reinforced. Each group consisted of a ref-
erence beam with no openings, a beam with square openings, and
a beam with circular openings. Each beam contained 12 equally-
spaced (regular) openings and longitudinal bars and full-depth
stirrups adjacent to the openings to prevent beam-type shear fail-
ure and short stirrups in the top and bottom chords to prevent
frame-type shear failure. Additionally, the beams with circular
openings contained diagonal reinforcement in the form of rebars
or segmental or continuous cables extending through the depths
of the posts. The beams were simply-supported at the ends and
subjected to six-point bending. The test results were compared
to the estimates from available equations and the following con-
clusions were drawn:
ð6Þ The use of diagonal reinforcement at the corners of the open-
ings was found to be an effective method for preventing shear fail-
ure of the posts between the openings and premature failure of the
beam due to Vierendeel truss action. Beams with circular openings
and diagonal reinforcement surrounding the openings were shown
2174 B. Aykac et al. / Engineering Structures 56 (2013) 2165–2174
to reach their ultimate flexural capacities irrespective of the flex-
ural reinforcement ratio of the beam.
The longitudinal rebars and full-depth stirrups adjacent to
openings and the short stirrups in the chords were effective in pre-
venting the shear failure of the beams with openings.
Different from RC beams with a single web opening, the plastic
hinges of the failure mechanism form in different chords in beams
with several openings. In the tests of SM and SH, two of the hinges
formed in the chords above and below the opening closest to the
end support, while the remaining two hinges formed at the ends
of the chords of the third opening. The greater longitudinal dis-
tances between the hinges resulted in a longer distance over which
reversal of curvature of the beam takes place. Consequently, the
stresses were distributed to greater portions of the beams, which
contributed to flexural resistance in Vierendeel action.
In beams with no diagonal reinforcement, the top and bottom
chords are prone to behave as two separate beams as the applied
load is increased. This results in reductions in the load capacities
of the beams. If diagonal reinforcement is provided around the
openings, a beam with openings reaches or exceeds the bending
moment capacity estimated by the rectangular stress block analy-
sis as long as the equivalent concrete block remains within the top
chord.
The use of diagonal reinforcement also contributes to the flex-
ural rigidity and ductility of a beam with openings. The failure of
a beam due to Vierendeel action reduces the ductility and energy
absorption capacity of the beam and the reduction in the rigidity
due to provision of openings increases as the tension reinforce-
ment ratio of the beam increases.
For the specimens with openings, some of the points corre-
sponding to the axial forces and bending moments at the hinge
locations at failure remained outside the interaction envelopes
indicating that all of the specimens with openings were prone to
fail due to Vierendeel truss action. Nevertheless, the beams with
circular openings reached their flexural capacities. This was attrib-
uted to the contribution of the diagonal reinforcement which pre-
vented the formation of plastic hinges in the chords and prevented
the chords to behave separately.
The analytical part of the present study was conducted to eval-
uate the estimates obtained from the available equations, which
were originally developed considering RC beams with a single or
a pair of openings, in the case of multiple openings in the beam.
Further research is needed to reach more precise conclusions.
However, the conclusions of the present study will be useful in
developing new analytical equations for RC beams with multiple
openings, especially for the plastic failure loads of these beams.
Acknowledgments
This paper represents a condensation of the thesis prepared at
Gazi Uni., Ankara, Turkey by Mr. Yusuf Emre Egriboz under super-
vision of Dr. Bengi Aykac toward the degree of M.Sc.
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