Parametric study of reduced web section of beam to column welded connection with castellated beam having hexagonal openings and subjected to cyclic loading

In this paper, a finite element (FE) analysis is carried out on a beam to column welded connections with multiple hexagonal web openings. The openings are distributed along the length of the beam which is subjected to cyclic loading protocol proposed by the SAC and FEMA 350 (2000). This study focuses on the interaction of the connections from columns to the perforated beam and mobilization of stresses. Two parameters were addressed: the distance from the face of the column (S), and the web opening spacing (So) including closely spaced opening. The study revealed that the design of mostly controlled reduced web section (RWS) connections should be fundamentally based on the distance of the first opening from the face of the column. Three values of the distance (S) are presented (200 mm, 350mm, and 520 mm). A model with an ideal distance (S) of 350 mm has resulted in an ultimate rotation of 0.039649 rad, which is less than other models, in which rotations were 0.049386 rad and 0.050000 rad, respectively.