A mechanical design model for steel and concrete composite members with web openings

In web opening regions, a significant share of the global shear force is redistributed from the perforated web of the steel beam to the reinforced concrete (RC) slab. This redistribution leads to vertical forces in the shear connectors close to both edges of the opening and influences the internal forces in the steel beam and the RC slab over a length of approximately three times the opening length a(0). The global shear failure in the web opening region is affected by the rather brittle behavior of the concrete and is either characterized by a diagonal shear cracking failure of the RC slab, or a local bending failure at the opening edges, or vertical connector failure (concrete break-out) at the ends of the opening. This paper is intended to clarify the structural behavior of web opening regions and proposes easy-to-use models that make it possible to analyze the local internal forces of each partial beam in a mechanically consistent manner. Based on these models, a novel design procedure is presented, that allows efficient design and dimensioning of web openings as well as prediction of shear resistance and failure mode.