Journal of Constructional Steel Research 124 (2016) 91–100

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Journal of Constructional Steel Research

Weak-axis flexural buckling of cellular and castellated columns

Delphine Sonck ⁎, Jan Belis
Department of Structural Engineering-LMO, Ghent University, Technologiepark-Zwijnaarde 904, 9052 Ghent, Belgium

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Cellular and castellated members are usually produced by performing cutting and rewelding operations on a hot-
Received 8 September 2015 rolled I-section member. As illustrated in previous work, these operations will influence the residual stresses
Received in revised form 5 May 2016 present in the members in a manner which is detrimental for the flexural buckling resistance. Up to now, this
Accepted 6 May 2016
has not been considered in the limited amount of literature concerning the flexural buckling resistance of
Available online 31 May 2016
these members.
Keywords:
In this paper, the weak-axis flexural buckling resistance is examined, taking into account the influence of the
Castellated members modified residual stress pattern and the modified geometry of cellular and castellated members. Therefore, the
Cellular members critical buckling load and the buckling resistance of simply supported cellular and castellated members were in-
Weak-axis flexural buckling vestigated numerically. In the numerical model, a modified residual stress pattern was introduced, based on ear-
Residual stresses lier measurements. As the amount of measurements was relatively limited, the results of these simulations
Numerical simulations should be considered as preliminary results, in attendance of a confirmation of the utilized residual stress pattern.
Abaqus The results of the simulations illustrate the detrimental influence of the expected residual stress pattern modifi-
cation on the buckling resistance. By comparing the results with the European buckling curves, preliminary best
fit curves could be selected. This comparison was executed with a 2T approach, in which all cross-sectional prop-
erties are calculated for the 2T section at the centre of the opening.
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Castellated and cellular members are I-section members with large
hexagonal or circular openings in their web. These members are com-
monly made by cutting the web of a hot-rolled I-section member (the
parent section) according to a pattern corresponding with the desired
openings shapes, after which both obtained halves are shifted and
welded together again (Fig. 1). The part of the member between two
openings is referred to as the web post, while the section at the opening
is called the tee section. Since the main advantage of these members is
their optimal material use in strong-axis bending, they are predomi-
nantly used for applications in which they are loaded in this manner.
However, cellular and castellated members are also applied for cases
in which they are loaded by a combination of a bending moment and
a compressive force or even for cases where only a compressive force
is present. After all, apart from the increased strong axis bending capac-
ity, they also have the advantage of their ability to pass service ducts
through their web openings and their lighter appearance.
Columns loaded in compression can fail by global flexural buckling
(FB) about the weak axis or about the strong axis, depending on the
boundary conditions. It is expected that the flexural buckling resistance
of castellated and cellular columns will be different than that of plain-
webbed columns of the same dimensions. The first difference is caused
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: Delphine.Sonck@UGent.be (D. Sonck), Jan.Belis@UGent.be (J. Belis).
by the modified geometry: around the web openings, local normal
forces, shear forces and bending moments will be present [1]. These
local forces will cause additional deformations around the openings,
which results in a lower critical buckling load about the strong axis
[2–5]. Additionally, compared with the same member without web
openings, the plastic resistance of the cross-section will be reduced
due to the presence of the openings. Secondly, it has been shown in ear-
lier work by the authors that the thermal influences during the fabrica-
tion process modify the already present residual stresses in the parent
section: the compressive residual stresses in the flanges increase [6].
As illustrated for plain-webbed I-section members by different authors
[7–11], an increase in compressive residual stresses in the flanges
causes an earlier onset of plastic yielding at these locations. Consequent-
ly, the effective bending stiffness will decrease more quickly with in-
creasing load, decreasing the flexural buckling resistance. However, to
the authors' best knowledge, no research is available in which the latter
detrimental effect has been included in the study of the flexural buck-
ling resistance of castellated and cellular columns. This could lead to un-
safe results.
In this paper, the weak-axis FB behaviour of cellular and castellated
members (Fig. 2) was investigated numerically for a large number of ge-
ometries. Both the elastic critical buckling load Ncr and the FB resistance
NRd were considered, so that the influence of the modified geometry and
the modified residual stress pattern could be determined. The obtained
resistances NRd will be compared with the buckling curves for plain-
webbed members which are currently used in the European standard

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcsr.2016.05.002
0143-974X/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
92 D. Sonck, J. Belis / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 124 (2016) 91–100
Fig. 1. Standard fabrication method of castellated and cellular members starting from a
plain-webbed parent section.
Eurocode 3 [12], which will be further referred to as EC3. In this work,
only simply supported, doubly symmetric, cellular and castellated
members loaded by a compressive axial load will be considered (Fig. 2).
First, an overview will be given of the considered geometries. Next,
the proposed design approach and the existing approach for plain-
webbed members will be described. Subsequently, the used finite ele-
ment model will be described. To conclude, the results for the critical
buckling load Ncr and the flexural buckling resistance NRd will be pre-
sented, discussed and compared with the proposed design approach.
2. Examined geometries
As mentioned above, cellular and castellated members are made by
cutting and rewelding a hot-rolled I-section, which is referred to as the
parent section. By varying the cutting pattern and the fabrication proce-
dure, it is possible to obtain a large variety in member and opening ge-
ometries, such as tapered and even curved members, or asymmetric
members with a different top- and bottom section. However, only pris-
matic members with a doubly symmetric cross-section, made from the
same parent section will be considered in this work.
In the numerical study, the critical weak-axis buckling load Ncr and
the weak-axis buckling resistance NRd were determined for a large num-
ber of simply supported compressed castellated and cellular columns.
The considered geometries were all made starting from the six hot-
rolled parent sections listed in Table 1. For the cellular columns, the
complete range of commonly used and feasible geometries starting
from these parent sections was considered by varying the opening
height a = fa·h and the web post width w = fw·‘0 = fw·a (Fig. 3) ac-
cording to Table 2. For each of these geometries, the resulting total cel-
lular member height can be calculated according to Eq. (1), with rb being
the cut width used during the cutting procedure, taken equal to a typical
value of 8 mm. The dimensions of each obtained geometry were
checked against the constraints given by existing technical documenta-
tion and standards [13,14], to obtain all feasible geometries made from
the six parent sections.
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ða−2r b Þ2 −w2
H ¼hþ
2 Considering the lateral-torsional buckling behaviour, it is expected
For the castellated columns, a wide range of possible geometries was
considered by varying the final member height H = fH·h = h + a/2, as
well as the value of the opening angle α and the web post width w =
fw·‘0 = fw·(w + 2c) (Fig. 3). The chosen values for the three parameters
fH, α and fw are listed in Table 2. The variation of the opening angle α and
Fig. 2. Weak-axis flexural buckling failure of cellular and castellated members loaded by a central compressive force.
Table 1
Dimensions of the parent sections (in mm) according to Fig. 3.
IPE300 IPE600 HE320A HE650A HE320M HE650M
h [mm] 300 600 310 640 359 668
b [mm] 150 220 300 300 309 305
tw [mm]) 7.1 12.0 9.0 13.5 21.0 21.0
tf [mm] 10.7 19.0 15.5 26.0 40.0 40.0
the web post width w allowed for a large variety of opening shapes,
going from very narrow diamond web openings to very wide web open-
ings, similar to those that would occur in an Angelina™ beam with wide
sinusoidal openings, as investigated (amongst others) by Durif [15].
Additionally, it was checked whether the obtained geometries were
feasible by comparing them with the geometric constraints given
in the previously mentioned technical standards and documentation
[13,14].
For each cellular and castellated member geometry, the lengths of

the columns were varied so that the slenderness λ of the considered ge-
ometries varied between approximately 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2 or 2.5, taking into
account a minimum member length Lmin of 5H. In total, 980 geometries
were considered for the cellular and castellated columns. In Fig. 4, a typ-
ical selection of the shortest IPE300 cellular and castellated geometries
is depicted.
3. Proposed design approach for weak-axis FB of castellated and
cellular members
It is expected that the weak-axis flexural buckling (FB) behaviour of
castellated and cellular members can be treated in the same way as the
lateral-torsional buckling (LTB) behaviour of these members. For the
latter failure mode, it has been shown that the buckling behaviour is
qualitatively similar to that of plain webbed-members [16,17]. Further-
more, the LTB resistance could be calculated by using a 2T approach,
calculating all cross-sectional properties for the cross-section at the lo-
cation of the openings (as depicted in Fig. 5), and using these in the de-
sign rules for plain-webbed I-section members. In earlier investigations
by various authors, the LTB resistance was examined numerically using
either an equivalent geometric imperfection, the original residual stress
pattern of the parent section, or even no residual stresses [18–23]. Only
in earlier work by the authors [24,25], the additional detrimental effect
of the modified residual stress pattern on the LTB resistance was taken
into account. In the latter works, it was shown numerically that the
modified residual stress pattern influences the LTB resistance detrimen-
tally. Considering the design guidelines from the current European stan-
dard EC3 [12] (see next section), the LTB resistances would lie one
buckling curve lower if the modified residual stress pattern (Fig. 6b)
ð1Þ was used instead of the original residual stress pattern (Fig. 6a).
that the weak-axis flexural buckling behaviour of castellated and
cellular members will also be qualitatively similar to that of I-section
members. Thus, the weak-axis flexural buckling resistance can be calcu-
lated using the design rules valid for I-section members, but with all
cross-sectional properties calculated for the cross-section at the centre
of the opening (2T approach). The proposed design approach for
 D. Sonck, J. Belis / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 124 (2016) 91–100 93

which Ncr is the critical buckling load for flexural buckling about the
weak axis z of a simply supported column with weak-axis bending stiff-
ness EIz and length L (Eq. (6)). The value of the imperfection factor α
represents the influence of imperfections and geometric nonlinearities
on the buckling resistance. Each buckling curve corresponds with a cer-
tain value of α: the lower the buckling curve and the corresponding
buckling resistance, the higher the value of α (Fig. 7 and Table 3). EC3
prescribes which buckling curve should be used for certain geometries,
yield strengths and buckling modes. For weak-axis flexural buckling of
hot-rolled sections with a material grade lower than S460, this is spec-
ified in Table 4. In this selection, the influence of the residual stress pat-
tern for hot-rolled members (depicted in Fig. 6a) is clearly visible. For
members with higher residual stress amplitudes (h/b ≤ 1.2), a lower
buckling curve is prescribed than for members with lower residual
stress amplitudes (h/b N 1.2).
Fig. 3. Dimensions of the castellated and cellular members, as well as their parent sections.

χAf y
NRd ¼ ð2Þ
γ M1
Table 2
Castellated and cellular member geometry: overview of the independently varied param-
eters in the parametric study. 1
χ¼ qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð3Þ
Cellular members Castellated members ϕ þ ϕ2 −λ2
fa 0.8 1.0 1.2 fH 1.4 1.5 1.6
fw 0.1 0.4 0.7 α 45° 60° 75° h i
fw 0.1 0.3 0.5 ϕ ¼ 0:5 1 þ α ðλ−0:2Þ þ λ2 ð4Þ

sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
plain-webbed members is the one prescribed by the European standard Af y
EC3 [12], which will be concisely given below. λ¼ ð5Þ
Ncr

3.1. EC3 design rules for FB of hot-rolled members

π2 EI z
Ncr ¼ Ncr;z ¼ ð6Þ
According to EC3 [12], the flexural buckling resistance NRd can be cal- L2
culated according to Eq. (2), in which A is the area of the cross-section; fy
the yield strength; γM1 the partial factor for member buckling (equal to The formulas which are referred to above are only valid for cross-
1.0 according to EC3) and χ the reduction factor. This reduction factor sections of class 1 to 3, for which the yield stress will be attained before

can be calculated as a function of the non-dimensional slenderness λ , any local buckling occurs. If this is not the case, the effective cross-

using Eqs. (3) and (4). The value of λ is obtained using Eq. (5), in section Aeff should be used instead of A in Eqs. (2) and (5).

Fig. 4. Example geometries for IPE300 parent section (shortest lengths): (a) cellular beams; (b) castellated beams.
94 D. Sonck, J. Belis / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 124 (2016) 91–100
Fig. 5. Section at opening (2T section): (a) real section geometry; (b) expanded geometry
using wire model; (c) wire model representation of 2T geometry in (b).
3.2. Adaptation of FB design rules for cellular and castellated members
While it is expected that applying the 2T approach for weak-axis
flexural buckling will have a negligible influence on the weak-axis
bending stiffness EIz, it will modify the area of the cross-section A,
which will also be calculated at the web opening. Additionally, the mod-
ified residual stresses will influence the buckling resistance detrimen-
tally. Therefore, it is not certain which buckling curve should be used
for weak-axis flexural buckling of cellular and castellated members.
Thus, it was examined which buckling curves would be most suitable
by comparing them with the numerically obtained results.
For each geometry, the cross-section (CS) class could be determined.
According to EC3 [12], this classification determines whether the cross-
section is prone to local buckling effects. For the castellated and cellular
members, the classification followed the design guidelines from EC3
[12] for the full web at the web post (the section between two open-
ings) and for the flanges. For the outstanding part of the web above
and below the opening (at the tee section), allowance had to be made
for the stabilising effect of the finite opening length. In the current EC3
specifications, no rules are present for beams with web openings, so
the rules from the earlier European pre-standard ENV3 [14], also pres-
ent in more current design guidelines [26,27], were used for the classi-
fication of the tee section webs. The most detrimental classification was
used for the complete section. For class 1 to 3 cross-sections, the classi-
fication does not influence the calculation of the plastic properties of the
compressed cross-section in Eqs. (2) and (5). However, for class 4 ge-
ometries, EC3 prescribes that a reduced effective cross-section with a
central opening and surface Aeff should be used to calculate the plastic
properties of the section.
The flanges of all geometries were of class 1, while the class of the
web at the tee section varied between class 2 and class 3. Due to the
larger height of the web, the cross-section class of the web at the web
post could reach class 4, except for the HEM320 geometries which
Fig. 6. (a) Residual stress pattern for hot-rolled members proposed by the ECCS in [32]; (b) residual stress patterns for cellular and castellated members derived from the results in [6].
Values are given for the tee section (TS), at the opening, and for the web post (WP), between two openings.
Fig. 7. EC3 buckling curves.
have very thick webs and flanges. However, the height of the opening
in the web of the effective cross-section, calculated according to [28],
was smaller than the value of the opening height a for all geometries.
Thus, the cross-section class of the web at the web post does not influ-
ence the plastic resistance calculations, since the plastic properties
were already calculated using the 2T cross-section with the larger open-
ing. Furthermore, for geometries with small web posts, the relevance of
the determination of the CS class of the web at the web post is question-
able, as the compressive stresses will not fully redistribute over the
complete height of the web between the openings.
4. Numerical model
The numerical model used for the parametric study was constructed
in Abaqus [29]. The flanges and the web were modelled by planar shell
elements, neglecting the presence of the fillets between the flanges and
the web (Fig. 5a). This is partially compensated by the overlap of the
shell elements at the web-to-flange intersection (Fig. 5b). Furthermore,
as illustrated in [30], it is expected that this modelling error will have a
negligible influence on the buckling curves when expressed in dimen-

sionless ðλ ; χÞ format. For reasons of consistency, the cross-sectional
properties calculated for the analytical design rules in Section 3 were
also calculated for a wire model without fillets (Fig. 5b and c).
A convergence study was executed to select the element type and
mesh size [25]. Accordingly, quadratic shell elements with reduced inte-
gration (S8R) were selected and the element size was chosen so that the
following five conditions were met: minimum two elements present
along the width of each web post; minimum six elements across the
flange width; minimum two elements in the web above or below each
 D. Sonck, J. Belis / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 124 (2016) 91–100
Table 3
Imperfection factors corresponding with buckling curves a-d, according to EC3 [12].
Buckling curve a b c d
Imperfection factor αLT 0.21 0.34 0.49 0.76
Table 4
Weak-axis flexural buckling curve selection for hot-rolled sections according
to EC3 [12] (valid for material grades lower than S460).
Buckling curve
h/b ≤ 1.2 and tf ≤ 100 mm c the same fabricator from six similar IPE160 parent sections. The measure-
h/b N 1.2 and tf ≤ 40 mm b
opening; minimum six elements across the length of each opening;
minimum element size of 0.03 m. For the cellular members, the corre-
sponding element size was prescribed globally across the member. For
the castellated members, the global element size corresponded with
all conditions except the first, which was introduced through local
mesh refinement. The mesh was generated automatically by Abaqus;
some examples of the mesh are depicted in Fig. 4.
All considered members were modelled as simply supported in fork-
supports: the vertical and sideways displacement of the cross-sections
at the ends, as well as the rotation of these cross-sections about the lon-
gitudinal axis, were prevented. Additionally, the longitudinal displace-
ment of the central web node was prevented at one member end. The
load was applied by line loads on the flanges and the web at both
ends of the member. The elastic weak-axis flexural buckling load Ncr,abq
was obtained as the first eigenvalue from a linear buckling analysis
(LBA). In this analysis, the material was modelled as linear elastic with
a modulus of elasticity E of 210 GPa and a Poisson's ratio of 0.3. The
member was assumed to be perfectly straight. The FB resistance NRd,abq
was obtained from a geometric and material nonlinear analysis with im-
perfections (GMNIA), by performing an arc length (Riks) analysis. The
maximum obtained load from this nonlinear analysis is considered to be
the FB resistance NRd,abq. The nonlinear material behaviour was elastic-
perfectly plastic, with a yield stress fy of 235 MPa. As imperfection, both
geometric imperfections and residual stresses were introduced. The geo-
metric imperfection was a lateral half-sine wave with amplitude L/1000,
of which the shape was equal to the flexural buckling eigenmode about
the weak axis. The residual stresses were introduced by means of a user
subroutine SIGINI. In this subroutine, the initial stress at each integration
point of each element was determined as a function of its coordinates,
taking into account the initial coordinates of the imperfect member.
The introduced residual stress pattern was the preliminary pattern
proposed by the authors for cellular and castellated members in [6,31],
Fig. 8. Deviation of Ncr,2T.
95
Table 5
Deviation of Ncr,2T.
ΔNcr,min [%] ΔNcr,max [%] ΔNcr,mean [%] ΔNcr,med [%]
Castellated members
ΔNcr,2T −5.0 0.0 −0.6 −0.3
Cellular members
ΔNcr,2T −4.4 0.0 −0.7 −0.3
shown in Fig. 6b. The proposed pattern is based on a series of measure-
ments of residual stresses in cellular and castellated members made by
ments showed that the residual stresses in the flanges at the web post
and tee section were similar. Additionally, the influence of the residual
stresses on the buckling load is mainly determined by the residual stress
pattern in the flanges. Consequently, it was decided to use a constant re-
sidual stress pattern for each column. In the area of the web above and
below the web openings, an equilibrating tensile stress σres,web is present,
of which the magnitude can be determined by expressing that the normal
resultant of the residual stresses is zero. The pattern measured for the
IPE160 sections is assumed to be valid for members made out of parent
sections with h/b N 1.2. For parent sections with h/b ≤ 1.2, a modified pat-
tern is proposed, taking into account the higher initial residual stresses in
these parent sections (Fig. 6a). Since the proposed pattern is based on a
relatively limited series of measurements, it would be useful to confirm
the validity of this pattern by conducting further measurements on mem-
bers made by different fabricators and from a wider variety of parent sec-
tions. Until then, the results based on this residual stress pattern which
are presented below can only be considered as preliminary.
The model was not explicitly validated for weak-axis flexural buck-
ling of castellated or cellular members, since no experimental data
were available for this failure mode. However, the used model was val-
idated for lateral-torsional buckling of castellated and cellular members
by comparing its results with eight experimental results, as described in
[24,25]. An additional validation was obtained by comparing the results
obtained for members with web openings and the ECCS residual stress
pattern [32] with analytical results from literature.
5. Results and discussion for elastic critical FB load Ncr
Of the considered 980 geometries, fifteen of the shortest length
members failed by local buckling. These were not further considered
in the study. All other members failed in a weak-axis flexural buckling
mode at a load of Ncr,abq. The obtained values of Ncr,abq are compared
with those calculated using the 2T approach and Eq. (6) (Ncr,2T). Since
the bending stiffness used in this expression is the weak-axis bending
stiffness, it is expected that the contribution of the web to this bending
96 D. Sonck, J. Belis / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 124 (2016) 91–100

Fig. 9. Web distortion during FB: (a) cross-sectional deformation of shortest IPE300 member during LBA; (b) deformation of shortest IPE300 member during GMNIA; (c) deformation of
long IPE300 member with same cross-section during LBA; (d) web distortion calculation.

Fig. 10. Error ΔNcr,2T as a function of the calculated web distortion for all castellated and cellular members.

Fig. 11. NRd results: comparison with different buckling curves.

 D. Sonck, J. Belis / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 124 (2016) 91–100 97

Table 6
Best fit EC3 buckling curve for ΔNRd.

Parent section h/b [−] H/b [−] Buckling curve ΔNRd,min [%]

HE320A ≤1.2 N1.2 d −0.2

HE320M ≤1.2 N1.2 d 0.1
IPE300 N1.2 N1.2 c −2.7
HE650A N1.2 N1.2 c −3.3
HE650M N1.2 N1.2 c −3.3
IPE600 N1.2 N1.2 c −1.6

stiffness is small, and hence also the influence of using the perforated
web instead of the full web. Nevertheless, the 2T approach is used for
reasons of consistency with the design rules for the buckling resistance
NRd. In Fig. 8, the deviations ΔN are depicted for all considered cellular
and castellated member geometries, while the minimum, maximum,
mean and median values are given in Table 5. These deviations are cal-
culated using Eq. (7).
 
Nabq
ΔN ¼ −1 ∙100%
N2T
The results for the castellated and cellular members are very similar.
For the longer members, the results obtained using the 2T approach
match the numerical values almost perfectly. However, for the shorter
lengths some unsafe deviations are apparent (up to 5%). These devia-
tions can be explained by looking at the corresponding buckling eigen-
modes, in which a clear deformation of the web is noticeable for these
shorter lengths (Fig. 9). For each member, the distortion of all web
Fig. 14. Earlier NRd results: comparison with different buckling curves for ECCS residual
stress pattern.
nodes was determined as the distance between the deformed distorted
position of the nodes and the non-distorted position of the nodes, calcu-
ð7Þ lated by interpolating between the position of the upper and lower web
nodes (Fig. 9d). The maximum distortion for each member is compared
with the deviation of the critical buckling load in Fig. 10. It can be seen
that for each parent section, an increase in web distortion corresponds
with an increasing unsafe error of the 2T proposal. A similar web distor-
tion was also noticeable in earlier research of the lateral-torsional buck-
ling behaviour, and is believed to be caused by an interaction of local
and global instability modes [18,23,24,33–35]. While this behaviour
will play a role in the numerical calculation of the elastic critical buck-
ling load, the effects of this distortion on the buckling resistance will

Fig. 12. ΔNRd results: comparison with buckling curve c.

Fig. 13. ΔNRd results: comparison with buckling curve d.

98 D. Sonck, J. Belis / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 124 (2016) 91–100

Fig. 15. Comparison of load–displacement curves for IPE300 member with fa = 0.8, fw = 0.1, 8 openings, λ=0.62; and two different residual stress patterns: a) the ECCS pattern σres,ECCS
from Fig. 6a; b) the pattern σres,mod from Fig. 6b. The used displacement U3 is the sideways displacement (in z-direction) of the centre of the column. The corresponding stress states of the
significant points are plotted below the graph.
 D. Sonck, J. Belis / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 124 (2016) 91–100
be greatly diminished once the plastic behaviour is considered. After all,
the failure of these shorter length members is expected to be governed
by plastic yielding instead of elastic buckling. Taking this into account,
the agreement between the numerical results and the proposed design
approach is very good.
6. Results and discussion for FB resistance NRd
In this section, the values of NRd,abq, obtained from the numerical
GMNIA calculations will be compared with the values of NRd,2T, calculat-
ed using Eq. (2) and the 2T approach for the cross-sectional properties.
Since the obtained results for the castellated and the cellular member
geometries are very similar, the conclusions below are valid for both
member types.

For each considered geometry, the values of χabq and λ were
calculated using Eqs. (3) and (5), with NRd equal to NRd,abq. The values

of ðλ ; χ abq Þ can now be compared with the buckling curves in Fig. 11.
For each parent section, the buckling curve with the least deviation
was determined using a least-square fit. The obtained curves are speci-
fied in Table 6, together with the value of the largest unsafe deviation
ΔNRd,min, obtained using Eq. (7). Both from these calculations and the
graphs, it can be seen that the best fitting curve is curve d for the
HE320A and HE320M parent sections, while the best fitting buckling
curve for all other parent sections is curve c. The unsafe deviations for
these curves remain relatively limited, with maximum values of 3.3%.
This conclusion is confirmed by Figs. 12 and 13, in which the numer-
ically obtained values NRd,abq are compared with the results NRd obtain-
ed using respectively buckling curve c or d. A clear distinction between
the behaviour of the HE320M/HE320A sections and the other sections is
visible. Inside both groups, the buckling resistances are relatively
similar, but the buckling resistance of the HE320A/HE320M group,
with h/b ≤ 1.2 is visibly lower. This difference in resistance is caused
by the different residual stress pattern that was assumed for the sec-
tions (Fig. 6b), which was already present for the parent sections
(Fig. 6a) resulting in a different buckling curve selection for I-section
columns in EC3 (Table 4).
The influence on the buckling resistance of the modification of the
residual stress pattern during the production process of castellated
and cellular members can be estimated by comparing the results from
Fig. 14 with those from Fig. 11. In Fig. 14, the results of earlier numerical
calculations for the weak-axis flexural buckling of cellular members are
depicted [36]. These earlier calculations considered similar cellular ge-
ometries, identical parent sections and used an identical model, but
the residual stress pattern was different. In the calculations for Fig. 14,
only residual stresses in the flanges were present, which were assumed
to have the magnitudes prescribed by the ECCS for the parent sections
(Fig. 6a), thus corresponding with the unmodified original residual
stress pattern. Comparing Figs. 11 and 14, it can be seen that the effect
of the residual stress modification corresponds with a decrease in the
buckling resistance of about one buckling curve. This is confirmed by
the results of [31], where the decrease in the buckling resistance caused
by the detrimental modification of the residual stress pattern was
shown to vary between 5 and 12%.
The decrease in buckling resistance is due to the advanced onset of
yielding for the members with the modified residual stress pattern, as
illustrated in Fig. 15. In this figure, the load–displacement behaviour is
depicted for a cellular beam made from an IPE300 parent section. In
case a, the ‘original’ residual stress pattern σres,ECCS was used in the
flanges (Fig. 6a), while the member in case b has the modified residual
stress pattern σres,mod from Fig. 6b, assumed for all cellular and castellat-
ed members in this work. Before any load is applied (point 1), the lon-
gitudinal stresses σx correspond with these residual stress patterns.
For small loads N, both curves coincide. At point 2, first yield occurs at
the flange tips of the member with σres,mod (case b). From this point
on, curve b will become nonlinear and will flatten significantly: due to
99
the yielding ate the flange tips, the member will become significantly
less stiff about the weak axis. Curve a will remain linear until point 3,
where the stress at the flange tips surpasses the yield stress. Since the
original compressive stress at the flange tips was lower, this will occur
at a higher load N than for case b. Ultimately, the members will reach
their maximum load in point 4. For member b, this will occur at a larger
displacement and lower load due to its larger sideways flexibility. This is
caused by the larger compressive residual stresses at the flange tips and
the larger size of the compressive zone for pattern σres,mod.
It is expected that the obtained results will also be valid for cellular
and castellated columns outside of the studied range of geometries, as
long as a local buckling check is executed separately from the weak-
axis flexural buckling check and as long as the assumed preliminary re-
sidual stress patterns are correct (see Section 4). In the numerical
model, only steel grade S235 (fy = 235 MPa) was considered, for
which the effects of the residual stresses are the most detrimental. Con-
sequently, the results will remain conservative for higher yield stress
values fy.
7. Conclusions
In this paper, the flexural buckling about the weak axis of simply
supported cellular and castellated members was investigated using a
numerical model. In this numerical model, a modified residual stress
pattern was introduced to take into account the modification of the re-
sidual stress pattern that is expected during the production of these
members. This pattern was based on earlier measurements of the resid-
ual stresses in a series of castellated and cellular members.
An investigation of the critical buckling load and the flexural buck-
ling resistance illustrated the applicability of the 2T approach combined
with the European buckling curves used in EC3 for plain-webbed mem-
bers. In this approach, all cross-sectional properties should be calculated
at the centre of the web opening, which will mainly influence the area of
the cross-section A. The preliminary best fitting buckling curves were
buckling curve c and d, depending on the height to width ratio of the
parent sections. This choice corresponded directly with the applicable
residual stress pattern, as is also the case for flexural buckling of
unperforated members.
Further research should be executed to confirm the validity of the
assumed residual stress pattern for castellated and cellular members
for a wider group of geometries and fabricators. To this extent, it
would be useful to compose a worldwide database of residual stress
measurements in castellated and cellular members, including the resid-
ual stress at the web post and the tee section, and preferably also the re-
sidual stress pattern in the original parent section.
Acknowledgements
Part of the computational resources (STEVIN Supercomputer Infra-
structure) and services used in this work were kindly provided by
Ghent University, the Flemish Supercomputer Center (VSC), the Hercu-
les Foundation and the Flemish Government – department EWI.
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