The College of Engineering at the University of Baghdad witnessed the public discussion of the master’s student (Aws Yaseen) in the Department of Civil Engineering on his thesis entitled “Behavior of Reinforced Concrete Beams with Central Vertical Opening Strengthened by Numerous Techniques” on Wednesday, the eighteenth of 2024, in the hall of Professor Dr. Mahdi Hantoush, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Amer F. Izzet. This study aims to examine a difficult research task into the behavior of reinforced concrete beams that contain vertical, the current design codes do not provide clear or adequate guidance on the design and analysis of perforated beams. In this context, the researchers aim to understand the effect of adding vertical openings that penetrate the full depth of concrete beams on their structural performance, specifically on their ability to withstand loads and deflections that occur in the middle of the span.
To achieve this, five specimens were fabricated as vertically perforated reinforced concrete sills and one specimen as (reference sill). The six specimens were tested under two point loads along a clear span of 180 cm and a total length of 200 cm. It was found that by adding a vertical opening to the reinforced concrete beam without any strengthening methods, the ultimate load-bearing capacity decreased by 8.8% and the mid-span deflection increased by 21.2% compared to the reference solid beam With the addition of top compression reinforcement on both sides of the opening in the reinforced concrete beam, the ability to bear the maximum loads decreased by only 4.1%, and the bends in the mid-span increased by 16%, 26.3%, and 7.6%, at loading step; of 40 kN, 100 kN, and ultimate load bearing capacity respectively.
