Castellated Beam Deflections Using Substructuring

Several approximate methods are presently available for calculating deflections in castellated steel beams, yet, none is very accurate. Using Pippard.s approximate method of analysis of open-panel structures, Gardner was able to predict deflection to within 5% or better in several simply supported castellated beams; the method, however, involves laborious calculations. Recently, the finite element method has been utilized to calculate deflections in short castellated beams. Direct application to long castellated beams, however, in view of the large number of elements required to discretize the entire beam, is not practical. In this paper, the method of substructures is combined with the finite element to obtain deflections for long castellated beams.