Shear strength of steel plate with reinforced opening

A cost effective way to mitigate the detrimental effects of large web openings in the floor joists of cold-formed steel buildings is to fasten reinforcements. This paper presents the details associated with the finite element analysis of thick/thin-plate, representing the web of a cold-formed steel member, having a large reinforced opening. The study considered simply-supported rectangular plates with opening subjected to in-plane shear loadings until failure (including post-buckling behaviour). The plate and the reinforcements were modelled using geometrically non-linear quadrilateral shell elements, and using experimentally established non-linear stress-strain relationships. The investigation considered three reinforcement schemes, namely, flat, lip, and angle reinforcements. This paper discusses the modelling considerations and presents the results associated with the three reinforcement schemes under consideration. Where possible the paper compares the analysis results with the experimental results. © (2010) by COPPE - Federal University of Rio de Janeiro All rights reserved.