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What are castellated beams?

A brilliant idea!

Castellated beams are made from standard hot-rolled I- H- or U-sections. The web of the beam is split lengthwise in a rack-shaped pattern. The halves so obtained are shifted a half-pitch in relation to one another and then welded together at the tops of the teeth. The result is a beam with a row of hexagonal holes in the body. The beam is much deeper than the original profile it is made from, while its weight is of course (almost) the same. It is also possible to weld square or rectangular plates between the cut halves, giving an even deeper castellated beam, now with octagonal holes in its body.

Due to their greater depth, castellated beams allow greater bending moments than the rolled beams from which they are made. In other words, they have considerably greater bending stiffness than the profile before cutting. A big advantage! The admissable transverse force is smaller. For this reason, castellated beams are particularly suitable for large spans with small(er) loads. To prevent buckling of the open-work web, infill plates can easily be welded in (if and where necessary).

©  Johann Grünbauer  Tel (+31) (0)20 6990300  E-mail info@grunbauer.nl TOP