Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 153-169 (2026)
EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON FLEXURAL PERFORMANCE OF
LARGE-SECTION PARTIALLY ENCASED COMPOSITE BEAM WITH WEB OPENINGS
Hong-Xin Liu 1, 2, Ping Yang 3, Yu-Kun Yang 4, Jie Li 5, Ya-Ming Li 1, 2, Shui-Zhong Jia 1, 2 and Xiao-Meng Xie 4, *
1 Shanghai Institute of Architectural Design and Research Co., Ltd., Shanghai 200041, China
2 Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Spatial Structure, Shanghai 200041, China
3 The Government Investment Project Proxy Construction Center of Kangbashi District, Ordos City, Erdos 017000, China
4 Shanghai Jieyi Construction Technology Co., Ltd., Shanghai 201311, China
5 Tongji University, Shanghai 201206, China
*(Corresponding author: E-mail:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
Received: 16 March 2025; Revised: 29 June 2025; Accepted: 2 July 2025
DOI:10.18057/IJASC.2026.22.2.3
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ABSTRACT
To investigate the effect of openings on the flexural performance of large-section partially encased composite beams (referred to as large-section PEC beams), static tests were conducted on five large-section PEC beams with different configurations. The study focused on the influence of web openings in the primary and secondary beams on the flexural performance, ductility, and failure modes of the specimens under four-point bending. The results indicate that under static loading, all specimens exhibited good ductility, with strength-to-yield ratios ranging from 1.18 to 1.30, and retained some strength reserves after reaching the yield load. Web openings slightly reduced the load-bearing capacity and sectional stiffness of the specimens. The strain in the main steel component and the concrete strain along the section height approximately exhibited a linear distribution, conforming to the plane section assumption. A finite element model was developed based on the test results. The load-deflection curves and stress contours matched well with the experimental results, and the error between the simulated and experimental ultimate load-bearing capacities was within 10%. The flexural load-bearing capacity calculated using the proposed method for large-section PEC beams with web openings showed minor deviations from the experimental values, with minimal influence from size effects, confirming the safety and reliability of the adopted formulas.
KEYWORDS
Large-section PEC beams, Failure mode, Flexural capacity, Ductility, Finite element analysis
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