Recommended Design Procedures for Beams with Web Openings

In todays construction practice, architects and engineers are specifying more and more frequently that holes be provided in the webs of both main and secondary girders and beams of buildings to accommodate the passage of utility components, and thereby minimize the story height and the cost of the building. For this reason, AISC is considering including provisions for such beams in a future addition to its Specification for the Design, Fabrication and Erection of Structural Steel for Buildings. To aid in preparing this addition, an ASCE Subcommittee on Beams with Web Openings (Task Committee on Flexural Members) developed suggestions for the addition. This paper summarizes these suggestions. This is not the first time that the AISC has considered holes in beam webs. In a 1956 AISC publication, Welded Tapered Girders, some design rules were given. The experimental data available at that time was meager, however, and consequently the design rules are, in general, not precise.