Static behavior of cantilever tapered castellated steel I-members

To save steels and improve the bending stiffness and capacity of steel members, H-section steel can be made into tapered castellated members by cutting in its web along a special line and welding after rearrangement. Experiments on these cantilever beam columns with different opening sizes and tapered ratios were performed under static loading. Based on the experimental results, finite element analyses of tapered castellated members were performed. The results showed that the ultimate bending strength of cantilever tapered castellated member increases with the increase of tapered ratio and decreases with the increase of opening size. The ultimate bending strength mainly depends on the section size at the big end of the members. The plastic hinge model can also be used for the cantilever tapered castellated beam-columns when the axial compression ratio is below a certain value.