Materials and Design 40 (2012) 90102

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Materials and Design

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matdes

Reinforced concrete beams with web openings: A state of the art review
A. Ahmed a, M.M. Fayyadh b, S. Naganathan a,, K. Nasharuddin a
a
b

Department of Civil Engineering, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, 43000 Selangor, Malaysia

Department of Civil Engineering, University Malaya, 50603 KL, Malaysia

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 8 November 2011
Accepted 2 March 2012
Available online 16 March 2012
Keywords:
A. Concrete and composite
G. Destructive testing
H. Failure analysis

a b s t r a c t
The construction of modern buildings requires many pipes and ducts in order to accommodate essential
services such as air conditioning, electricity, telephone, and computer network. Web openings in concrete
beams enable the installation of these services. A number of studies have been conducted with regards to
reinforced concrete beams which contain web openings. The present paper aims to compile this state of
the art work on the behaviour, analysis and design of Reinforced Concrete (RC) beams with transverse
web openings. A variety of aspects will be highlighted and discussed including the classication of openings, guidelines for opening location, and the structural behaviour of RC beams with web openings.
Various design approaches will also be detailed, for example the American Concrete Institute (ACI)
approach, the Architectural Institute of Japan (AIJ) approach and the strut and tie method. Moreover,
the strengthening of RC beams with openings using Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) material and steel
plates is presented. Finally, directions for future research based on the gaps which exist in the present
work are presented.
2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
In modern building construction, transverse openings in reinforced concrete beams are often provided for the passage of utility
ducts and pipes. These ducts are necessary in order to accommodate essential services such as water supply, electricity, telephone,
and computer network. These ducts and pipes are usually placed
underneath the soft of the beam and for aesthetic reasons, are
covered by a suspended ceiling, thus creating a dead space. In each
oor, the height of this dead space adds to the overall height of the
building depending on the number and depth of ducts. Therefore
the web openings enable the designer to reduce the height of the
structure, especially with regard to tall building construction, thus
leading to a highly economical design.
The presence of transverse openings will transform simple
beam behaviour into a more complex behaviour, as they induce a
sudden change in the dimension of the beams cross section. However, as the opening represents a source of weakness, the failure
plane always passes through the opening. The ultimate strength,
shear strength, crack width and stiffness may also be seriously
affected.
Furthermore, the provision of openings produces discontinuities
or disturbances in the normal ow of stresses, thus leading to stress
concentration and early cracking around the opening region. Similar to any discontinuity, special reinforcement or enclosing of the
Corresponding author. Tel.: +60 126848463.
E-mail address: SivaN@uniten.edu.my (S. Naganathan).
0261-3069/$ - see front matter 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2012.03.001

opening close to its periphery, should therefore be provided in sufcient quantity to control crack widths and prevent possible premature failure of the beam [1].
2. Opening classication
This section presents the classication of Reinforced Concrete
(RC) beams with web openings based on the openings size and
position. Openings are classied as small or big openings and the
best position of the opening is decided based on its size. Web openings have been found to take many shapes such as circular, rectangular, diamond, triangular, trapezoidal and even irregular shapes.
However, circular and rectangular openings are the most common
ones in practice [2]. With regards to the size of openings, many
researchers use the terms small and large without drawing
any clear-cut demarcation line. Small openings are dened as those
which are circular, square or nearly square in shape [1,3]. In contrast, and according to Somes and Corley [4], a circular opening
may be considered as large when its diameter exceeds 0.25 times
the depth of the web. The author however feels that the essence
of classifying an opening as either small or large lies in the structural response of the beam. When the opening is small enough to
maintain the beam-type behaviour, or in other words, if the usual
beam theory applies, then the opening may be termed as small.
When beam-type behaviour ceases to exist due to the provision
of openings, then the opening may be classied as a large opening.
By assuming the prevalence of Vierndeel action and considering
the fact that failure occurs after the formation of a four-hinge

A. Ahmed et al. / Materials and Design 40 (2012) 90102

mechanism, Mansur [5], recommended certain criteria with which

to classify the size of an opening as either large or small. It can be
assumed that hinges form in the chord members at a distance of
h/2 from the vertical faces of the opening. This is shown in Fig. 1,
where h is the overall depth of a chord member, and the subscripts
t and b refer to the top and bottom chords, respectively.
 Small opening, lo 6 hmax
 Large opening, lo > hmax
where hmax is the larger of ht and hb.
That is, when the length of opening I0 is less than or equal to
hmax, it may be dened as a small opening. For large openings,
I0 > hmax. In this denition, it is assumed that the members above
and below the opening have adequate depth to accommodate the
reinforcement scheme. In the case of circular openings, the circle
should be replaced by an equivalent square for the determination
of the value of hmax.
Mansur and Tan [6] provided guidelines to facilitate the selection of the size and location of web openings as illustrated in Fig. 2.
(i) For T-beams, openings should preferably be positioned ush
with the ange for ease in construction. In the case of rectangular beams, openings are commonly placed at mid-depth of
the section, but must also be placed eccentrically with
respect to depth. Care must be exercised to provide sufcient
concrete cover to the reinforcement for the chord members
above and below the opening. The compression chord should
also have a sufcient concrete area to develop the ultimate
compression block in exure and should also have adequate
depth to provide effective shear reinforcement.
(ii) Openings should not be located closer than one-half of the
beams depth D to the supports. This is in order to avoid
the critical region for shear failure and reinforcement congestion. Similarly, the positioning of an opening closer than
0.5D to any concentrated load should be avoided.
(iii) Depth of openings should be limited to 50% of the overall
beam depth.
(iv) The factors which limit the length of an opening are the stability of the chord members, in particular the compression
chord, and the serviceability requirement of deection.
When the opening becomes bigger, it is preferable to use
multiple openings providing the same passageway instead
of using a single opening.
(v) When multiple openings are used, the post separating two
adjacent openings should not be less than 0.5D to ensure
that each opening behaves independently.
Based on the aforementioned review, it is clear that openings can
take many shapes and sizes. The actual type and location of an opening must be clearly decided before the design specication stage.

91

3. Small openings design approaches

This section presents the design approaches which have been
used for RC beams with small openings. The traditional method,
the Architectural Institute of Japan (AIJ) method, the plasticity
method and the strut and tie method are the main design approaches which are presented in this paper. Mansur and Tan [6]
recommended that a circular, square, or nearly square opening
may be considered a small opening provided that the depth (or
diameter) of the opening is in realistic proportion to the beam size,
that is, less than approximately 40% of the overall beam depth. In
such a case, beam action may be assumed to prevail. Therefore,
the analysis and design of a beam with small openings may follow
a similar course of action to that of a solid beam.
3.1. Traditional design approach
It was recommended that in the case of pure bending, because
the concrete there would have cracked anyway in exure at ultimate, the placement of an opening completely within the tension
zone does not change the load-carrying mechanism of the beam
[7,8]. This was illustrated through worked examples supported by
test evidence. Thus, the ultimate moment capacity of a beam is
not affected by the presence of an opening as long as the minimum
depth of the compression chord, hc, is greater than or equal to the
depth of the ultimate compressive stress block, that is, when:

hc 6

As fy
0:85fc0 b

where As is the area of exural reinforcement, fy is the yield strength

of exural reinforcement, fc0 is the compressive strength of concrete
and b is the beam width.
Tests have been conducted with a small opening enclosed by
reinforcement and introduced into a region subjected to predominant shear [4,912]. As shown in Fig. 3, the beam may fail in two
distinctly different modes. The rst type is labelled beam-type failure which is typical of the failure commonly observed in solid
beams except that the failure plane passes through the centre of
the opening (as shown in Fig. 3a). Conversely, in the second type
labelled frame-type failure, the formation of two particular diagonal cracks, one in each member bridging the two solid beam segments, leads to the failure (as shown in Fig. 3b). It was suggested
that these types of failures require separate treatment for complete
design [6].
Similar to the traditional shear design approach, in both the
cases it may be assumed that the nominal shear resistance, Vn, is
the sum of two components Vc and Vs (attributable to concrete
and shear reinforcement across the failure plane).

Vn Vc Vs

3.1.1. Beam-type failure

Similar to a solid beam, a 45 inclined failure plane may be
assumed when designing for beam-type failure, with the plane
being traversed through the centre of the opening, as shown in
Fig. 4 [6]. A simplied approach namely the American Concrete
Institute (ACI) Code [13] can be followed to estimate the shear
resistance Vc provided by the concrete:

Vc

Fig. 1. Forming of hinge in RC beam with opening [5].

1
6

q
fc0 bw d  do :

where bw is the web width, d is the effective depth and do is the

diameter of opening.
For shear reinforcement contribution, Vs should be calculated
by using Eq. (3). It may be seen that the stirrups available to resist

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A. Ahmed et al. / Materials and Design 40 (2012) 90102

Fig. 2. Guidelines for the location of openings [6].

Fig. 3. The two modes of shear failure at small openings [6].

resisted by the usual bending mechanism, that is, by the couple

formed by the compressive and tensile stress resultants, Nu, in
the chord members above and below the opening. These stress
resultants may be obtained by:

Nu t 

Fig. 4. Shear resistance Vs provided by shear reinforcement at an opening [6].

shear across the failure plane are those by the sides of the opening
within a distance of (dv  do):

Av fyv
Vs
dv  do
s

where dv is the distance between the top and bottom longitudinal

rebars and do is the diameter (or depth) of opening; Av = area of
vertical legs of stirrups per spacing s; fyv = yield strength of stirrups.
The total amount of web reinforced and thus calculated should be
contained within a distance (dv  do)/2, or preferably be lumped
together on either side of the opening.
3.1.2. Frame-type failure
This type occurs due to the formation of two independent diagonal cracks, one on each of the chord members above and below
the opening, as shown in Fig. 3b. It appears that each member behaves independently similar to the members in a framed structure.
Design reinforcement was recommended for this mode of failure
and it was also suggested that the chord member requires independent treatment [6]. Let us consider the free-body diagram at
the beam opening, as shown in Fig. 5. Clearly, the applied factored
moment, Mu, at the centre of the opening from the global action is

Mu
 Nu b
d  2a

subject to the restrictions imposed by Eq. (5). In this equation, d is

the effective depth of the beam, a is the depth of equivalent rectangular stress block and the subscripts t and b denote the top and bottom cross members of the opening, respectively.
It was recommended that the applied shear, Vu, may be distributed between the top and the bottom chords in proportion to their
cross-sectional areas [14]. Thus:


V u t V u

At
At Ab

V u b V u  V u t

Knowing the factored shear and axial forces, each member can be
independently designed for combined shear and axial force by the
usual procedure for solid beams.

Fig. 5. Free-body diagram at beam opening [5].

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A. Ahmed et al. / Materials and Design 40 (2012) 90102

3.2. AIJ approach

A formula has been suggested by the Architectural Institute of
Japan (AIJ), [15], and is the standard for structural calculation of
reinforced concrete structures to evaluate the shear capacity Vn
of beams which contain a small opening. This empirical formula
is considered similar to the traditional approach where the total
shear resistance is provided by both concretes and the steel crosses
a 45 failure plane passing through the centre of the opening as
shown in Fig. 6. The formula given is as follows:

Vn

"
#


q
0:092K u K p fc0 17:7
1:61do
0 f

0:846
q
1

w yv bdv
M
h
0:12
Vd
8

Fig. 7. Determination of Ku.

where kp = 0.82 (100As/bd)0.23, do is the diameter of the circular

opening or diameter of the circumscribed circle in the case of a
square opening, which should be taken as less than or equal to
h/3; h is the overall depth of the beam, and M/(Vd) is taken as less
than or equal to 3.
The term K is a function of the effective depth d to account for
the size effects in shear and has a value of between 0.72 and 1.0 as
shown in Fig. 7. fyv is the yield strength of web reinforcement.
Where dv is the distance between the top and bottom longitudinal bars, the term p
w in Eq. (8) refers to the ratio of web reinforcement placed within a longitudinal distance dv/2 from the centre of
the opening as shown in Fig. 6, and dened as:

q0w

Av sin a cos a
bdv

where Av is the area of web reinforcement.

3.3. Plasticity method
In a beam with openings, however, it is difcult to develop an
arch mechanism, and consequently, the applied shear is transferred by means of a truss mechanism. A beam has a circular opening only when the beam is reinforced transversely by vertical
stirrups [16], as shown in Fig. 8.
Note that us is the angle of concrete compression strut in the
upper and lower chord members.
The horizontal arrows show bond stress and the vertical arrows
represent forces acting on the concrete due to the forces in the stirrups. The unshaded portion shows the zone where the diagonal
compressive stress eld is not formed. The diagonal compressive
stress in concrete around the opening becomes larger as the unshaded portion widens or as the opening become large. The effective
depth dtw for the truss mechanism is dened as:

Atw dv 

do
 Sv tan s
cos s

10
Fig. 8. Truss action in beam with opening [16].

where do is the diameter of the circular opening (or that of a circumscribed circle in the case of a square or rectangular opening), and sv
is the spacing between the two stirrups, one on each side adjacent
to the opening.
Assuming yielding of stirrups, the concrete compressive stress
in the shaded portion is given by:

fcw qv fyv 1 cot2 s

Fig. 6. Effective web reinforcement for opening [15].

11

where pv is the ratio of shear reinforcement placed adjacent to the

opening and fyv is the yield strength of the stirrups.
The value of fcw in Eq. (11) equating to the effective compressive
strength of concrete vfc gives the value of us as:

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A. Ahmed et al. / Materials and Design 40 (2012) 90102

s
0
Vf c
cot s
qv fyv  1

12

The shear strength of the beam with an opening is given by:

V n bdtw qv fyv cot s

13

This applies when diagonal steel reinforcement bars are provided

and the development length is anchored outside of the stirrups
adjacent to the opening as shown in Fig. 9. Where the compressive
stress in concrete is relatively low, the contribution of the diagonal
bars to the shear capacity is given by:

V nd Ad fyd sin hd

14

where hd is the angle of inclination to the axis of the beam, and Ad is

the cross-sectional area of the diagonal bars. The total shear strength
of the beam can be given by adding the value of vnd to the value of vn.
3.4. Strut and Tie model
The strut and tie method was suggested in order to design a
beam with a small opening. This model takes into account the fact
that the applied loads are transmitted through the member to the
support by means of a system of tension and compression struts
provided by the steel reinforcement and concrete, as shown in
Fig. 10 [17]. They are interconnected at the nodes. Such a truss
model assumes or requires that:
(i) Forces in the truss member are in equilibrium.
(ii) Concrete resists only compression and has effective compressive strength fce equal to fc, where the effectiveness factor v is usually less than 1.0.
(iii) Steel reinforcement is required to resist all tensile force.
(iv) The centred axis of each truss member and the lines of
action of all externally applied loads at a joint must meet
at the nodes.
(v) Failure occurs when a concrete compressive strut crushes, or
when a sufcient number of steel tension ties yield to produce a mechanism.
The traditional method is an American method based on the ACI
Code equations and can be considered a simple method as it is
based on the same considerations for RC beams without openings.

(a) Arrangement of diagonal reinforcement

around opening

(b) truss action

Fig. 9. Beam with small opening reinforced by diagonal bars [16].

Fig. 10. Strut and Tie force [17].

The AIJ method is a Japanese method which is based on an empirical equation where a constant K value must be found from a chart.
The plasticity method is based on the load trend between the
applied load on the beam top surface and the supports. The strut
and tie method considers the transmission of the applied load
through a member to the supports by means of a struts system.
Each approach has been applied by a different researcher but as
yet no work has been conducted on a comparison between these
methods. Such a study would be useful in order to establish the
most convenient approach for RC beams with small openings.
4. Large opening design approaches
The presence of large openings in reinforced concrete beams
requires special attention in the analysis and design phase because
of the reduction in both strength and stiffness of the beam and
excessive cracking at the opening due to high stress concentration
[18]. This section presents existing approaches which have been
used for the design of RC beams with large openings. The plastic
hinge method, with its three revisions, is presented as well as
the plasticity method.
4.1. Plastic hinge method
This approach was proposed by Mansur and Tan [6] in 1996 for
the design of RC beams with large openings. In the ten years following this milestone, authors have revised these approaches and in
2006 produced the third revision of the original method. This section presents the mathematical equations of these approaches.
4.1.1. Plastic hinge method I
Similar to a beam with small openings, the incorporation of a
large opening in the pure bending zone of a beam will not affect
its moment capacity provided that the depth of ultimate compressive stress block is smaller than or equal to the depth of the compression chord, and that instability failure of the compression
chord is prevented by limiting the length of the opening [2]. In
practice, openings are located near the supports where shear is
predominant. Experiments have shown that a beam with insufcient reinforcement and improper detailing around the opening
region fails prematurely in a brittle manner [19]. When a suitable
scheme consisting of additional longitudinal bars near the top and
bottom faces of the bottom and top chords, and short stirrups in
both the chords are furnished, then the chord members behave
in a manner similar to a Vierendeel panel and failure occurs in a
ductile manner. The failure of such a beam is shown in Fig. 11.
Clearly, the failure mechanism consists of four hinges, one at each
end of the top and bottom chords.
The experimental observations of the nal mode of failure developed a method of analysis for predicting the ultimate strength of a
beam with a large rectangular opening [20]. It is based on the

A. Ahmed et al. / Materials and Design 40 (2012) 90102

collapse load analysis in which the basic requirements of equilibrium, yield and mechanism are satised simultaneously. The main
ingredients of this method, which yields a closed-form solution for
the collapse load, are briey described below for a simply-supported beam subject to a point load, P, at a solid section distance,
X, from its right support, as shown in Fig. 12.
For the beam in Fig. 12a, the free-body diagram through the
opening centre and those of the chord members above and below
it may be represented by Fig. 12b and c, respectively. It may be noted
that the unknown actions at the centre of the opening are the axial
forces (Nt and Nb), the bending moments (Mt and Mb), and the shear
forces (Vt and Vb) in the chord members. Three equilibrium equations relate these six unknowns in which Mm and Vm are the applied
moment and shear force, respectively, at the centre of the opening.
Thus, the beam is statically indeterminate to the third degree.
In a general situation, the problem is statically indeterminate to
the third degree. Equilibrium provides only three equations. Therefore, three additional equations must be formulated in order to
solve the three unknown actions.

Mt Mb N z Mm

15

Nt Nb 0

16

Vt Vb Vm

17

This may be accomplished as outlined below. When the chord

members are symmetrically reinforced then the moments at the
two ends of each chord member (potential hinge location) are
numerically identical at plastic collapse. That is, M1 = M2 and
M3 = M4. From the free-body diagram of the chord members (as
shown in Fig. 12c), it may be readily shown that the contra exure
points occur at the midpoint of the chord members. This means that
Mt = 0 and Mb = 0. Eq. (15) then reduces to:

N z Mm

18

if the total shear, Vm, through the centre of the opening due to global action is suitably apportioned between the chord members, that
is, if:

V t kv V m

19

where kv is a known value, then the problem reduces to a statically

determinate one and the critical sections at the ends of the chord
members which are subject to combined bending, shear and axial
force can be designed in the usual way following the provisions of
any current building codes.
There are, however, three schools of thought regarding the distribution of applied shear between the chord members at an opening. The rst, as proposed by Lorensten [21], assumes that the
compression chord carries the total shear and the tension chord
merely acts as a link carrying no shear. This is probably true when
the opening is near the bottom. The second proposal by Nasser et
al. [14] and Ragan and Warwaruk [22], distributes the total shear
between the chord members in proportion to their cross-sectional
areas. The third, suggested by Barney et al. [12], distributes the
shear force in proportion to the exural stiffness of the chord
members. Accordingly:

Fig. 11. Failure mode [20].

95

Lorensten21 : k 0

20

Nasser etal:14 : kv At=At Ab

21

Barney etal:12 : kv It=It Ib

22

Clearly, the three proposals would lead to widely varying amounts

of shear being assigned to each chord. However, such an assumption is not necessary if the chord members are symmetrically reinforced. The salient points in such a design process are described in
the owing steps [23]. Due to the introduction of an opening, additional reinforcement must be provided in the chord member so as
to retain the original strength of the beam. This additional reinforcement may be conveniently arranged in a symmetrical manner
for the top (compression) chord member as shown in Fig. 13. For the
bottom (tension) chord member, which has already been provided
with a relatively large amount of reinforcement near the bottom
face, it is difcult to reinforce in a symmetrical manner because
of the danger of steel congestion and over-reinforcement. Hence it
is most likely that the bottom chord will be asymmetrically reinforced. With the assumption that the top chord is symmetrically
reinforced, the interaction diagrams for positive and negative bending will be numerically identical. The nondimensional interaction
chart for the top (compression) chord may be obtained by using
the method of equilibrium and strain compatibility. A typical linearised chart, corresponding to the case where the distance between
the centroid of the two layers of reinforcement is presented in
Fig. 14. The chart has been developed using the stressstrain relationship for steel and the compressive stress block for concrete as
recommended in the ACI code [24], and is valid for fc0 < 30 MPa
and fy = 400 MPa. The curves in this chart are labelled with values
of (l q g) where l = fy/0.85 fc0 and q g = 2As/bh; b and h are the overall depths of the chord members, and they are expressed in terms of
nominal strength with a capacity reduction factor of 0.9.
The interaction chart for the bottom (tension) chord may be
obtained in a similar manner. Fig. 15 shows a chart for a typical
value of cb and for equal concrete cover for top and bottom reinforcement. For unequal concrete covers, a similar chart may be
plotted by varying the position of the top reinforcement as dened
by c0b , keeping cb at a xed value. In Fig. 15 each linearised curve
with a particular (l q g) is subdivided into three curves labelled
with different values of a where a A0s =As A0s , q g As A0s =
bh and A0s = area of reinforcement for negative bending, and they
are expressed in terms of ultimate axial load and moment also
using a capacity reduction factor U of 0.9.
The design steps involved in this simplied method are as
follows:

ht hb
do 0:5  acb hb
2

24

where No = axial load capacity in direct tension and Mo = pure bending moment capacity in positive and negative bending.
The value of bending moments at the two ends (Mu)b,3 and
(Mu)b,4 at collapse are calculated from:

M u b No b  Nu b Mo b =No b Mu b;3or4

25

M 0u b No b  Nu b M0o b =No b Mu b;3or4

26

V u b Mb;4  Mb;3 =o

27

V u t V m  V u b

28

Nu t Nu b

29

M u t;2

V u t o
Mu t;1
2

30

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A. Ahmed et al. / Materials and Design 40 (2012) 90102

Fig. 12. Beam with a large opening under bending and shear [20].

Fig. 13. Beam before and after introduction of the opening [6].

4.1.2. Plastic hinge method II

If the bottom chord is also assumed to be symmetrically reinforced, the number of design charts may be minimised, leading to

a considerable simplication of the overall design process [6]. In this

case, the moment-tension interaction diagram would be numerically identical for positive and negative bending, as represented by

A. Ahmed et al. / Materials and Design 40 (2012) 90102

97

depend on the amount of longitudinal reinforcement and whether

the depth is sufcient to provide effective shear reinforcement.
Thus, if the opening is provided in a T-beam just below the ange,
and the ange thickness is inadequate for the placement of stirrups, the entire shear should be assigned to the bottom chord. Similarly, a situation may arise where the opening is near the bottom
of the beam and the bottom chord member is very shallow compared to the top chord. In such a case, the top chord member
should be designed to carry the total shear force. For equally sized
chord members, however, assignment of less than half of the external shear to the bottom (tension) chord member leads to a more
economical design.
Once a suitable shear force is assigned to the bottom chord,
(Mu)b,4 can be calculated from Eq. (31) and the required reinforcement can be obtained from the appropriate chart in Fig. 15. The
design of the top chord member is identical to that used in simplied method 1.
4.1.3. Plastic hinge method III
Mansur [25] has stated that his old method of [20] is relatively
complex and requires the development of new sets of design
charts. The complexity arises mainly due to the consideration of
the generalised arrangement of reinforcement in the chords. However, the design solution may be considerably simplied if the
chord members are reinforced symmetrically. This is a feasible
option because opening length represents only a small fraction of
the total span of the beam.
Fig. 14. The interaction diagram for compression chord [6].

Step 1: Determine longitudinal reinforcement for the compression chord.

First, assuming that the beam contains no openings, design the
longitudinal reinforcement. If the beam is subject to a sagging moment, the main reinforcement, As, will be at the bottom. The top
reinforcement will be lighter than the bottom reinforcement and
the same amount is usually continued throughout the length of
the beam, including the opening region. Thus, the top reinforcement in the compression chord is known. Use the same amount
and the arrangement at its bottom as additional reinforcement is
required to restore the strength and avoid brittle failure of the
beam due to the provision of openings.
Step 2: Determine the shear force carried by the compression
chord.

Fig. 15. The interaction diagram for tension chord [6].

the solid line in Fig. 15, and the contra exure point would occur at
mid span. With this in mind, Eqs. (27) and (23) reduce to:

V u b 2M u b;4 =o

31

Mm
Z

32

Nu b

Since the amount and arrangement of longitudinal reinforcement in the compression chord are known, and as the axial force
acting on it is given by Eq. (18), the moment capacity of the section
may be estimated in the usual manner. Because of symmetry, the
capacity in positive and negative bending will be numerically identical. Therefore, from the free-body diagram of Fig. 12c, the amount
of shear force which can be transmitted through the compression
chord at ultimate may be obtained as:

V u t 2M u t;2 =o

Eq. (32) gives the magnitude of axial force in the chord member directly irrespective of the amount of reinforcement. However, to proceed with the design, it is necessary either to assume a certain
quantity of reinforcement or to assign a fraction of the total shear
to be carried by the bottom chord. The latter approach is suggested
because it offers great exibility.
When assigning the shear force, it should be kept in mind that
the shear carrying capacity of a chord member depends on the
moment capacities of the critical end sections. These in turn

33

where lo is the length of opening.

Step 3: Determine the moments and forces at critical sections
and design the tension chord.
The shear force carried by the tension chord will be the difference between the applied shear and that carried by the compression chord in accordance with Eq. (17). Due to reinforcement
symmetry, the contra exure point will be at mid-span. The moment at the critical end section is then given by:

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A. Ahmed et al. / Materials and Design 40 (2012) 90102

shown in this gure by the direction of arrows with blank circles

as the targets.
4.2. Plasticity method
This approach was proposed by the Architectural Institute of
Japan (AIJ) in 1988 for the design of RC beams with large openings. In small openings in plasticity truss models, shear is resisted by a beam through a combination of the arch and truss
mechanism. In this case, where the top and bottom chord members are of equal depth and where the distance between the top
and bottom longitudinal of reinforcement is dvs. It has been recommended by the Architectural Institute of Japan [26] that vertical stirrups be provided uniformly through the chord members
and for a distance equal to dvs cot Us on each side of the opening, where us is the angle of inclination of the compression concrete struts in each chord member, as shown in Fig. 17. The
longitudinal reinforcement adjacent to the opening should be extended beyond the above vertical stirrups and provided with
anchorage hooks bent inside.
The shear force carried by each truss mechanism in the chord
members is:

V t bdv pv fyv cot s

where b = width of section, qv = shear reinforcement ratio of stirrups, and fyv = yield strength of stirrups. Thus, the shear capacity
of the beam can be obtained as:

Fig. 16. Typical design chart [25].

Mu b V u b

o
2

35

34

V u 2bdv s qv fyv cot s

36

where
With the axial tension given by Eq. (18), the required amount of
longitudinal reinforcement can be obtained by following the standard design procedure. Reinforcement which has already been
determined from the global action can now be taken into account
to obtain the desired symmetrical arrangement of reinforcement
in the tension chord. Design for shear is identical to a solid beam.
Use of design charts, similar to a column, may expedite the design
process. A typical design chart (using the capacity reduction factor
u = 0.9) for symmetrical arrangement of reinforcement, approximated by straight lines, is shown in Fig. 16, where l = fy/0.85 fc0
and q g = 2As/bh. The simple design steps, as outlined above, are

s
0
Vf c
cot s
162
qv fyv

37

and

qv fyv 6 Vf 0c
where fyv = yield compressive strength and
for the compressive strength of concrete:

V 0:7fc0 =200

Fig. 17. Truss action in beam with reinforced rectangular opening [26].

38

v = effectiveness factor
39

A. Ahmed et al. / Materials and Design 40 (2012) 90102

Fig. 18. Truss action in beam with rectangular opening reinforced with diagonal
bars [26].

The lower limit for cot Us as indicated in Eq. (37) is to ensure

aggregate interlocking in crack and to prevent excessive crack
widths.
The required force in the longitudinal reinforcement near the
opening in each chord member is given by:

T sn Asn fy

V u l0
2dv s

40

T sn Asn fy

V u o
2dv s

41

and that in the longitudinal reinforcement away from the opening

is:

T sf Ast fy

V u o dv s cot s
2dv s

42

where Asn and Asf are the area of longitudinal reinforcement in each
chord member near and away, respectively, from the opening.
Where diagonal reinforcement is provided as shown in Fig. 18,
the shear resistance provided is given by:

Ad Ad fyd sin hd

43

where Ad is the area, fyd is yield strength, and hd angle of inclination

to the beam axis of the diagonal bars.
The plastic hinge approaches are based on the ACI Code equations using a columns chart while the plasticity approach is based
on the force trend between the applied load on the beam top surface and the supports. The difference between the three approaches
to the plastic hinge method is the portion of shear carried by the top
and bottom chords. No research has been conducted to compare
these three plastic hinge methods nor has the method been compared with the plasticity approach.
5. Performance of beams with openings
Among the earliest works on beams with openings, Nasser et al.
[12] in 1967 studied the behaviour of rectangular RC beams with
large web openings. They found that the top and the bottom chord
of large opening beams behaved like a Vierendeel panel and the
contra exure points occurred at their mid point. They also
assumed that the apportionment of applied shear was distributed
between the top and bottom chord in proportion to their cross-sec-

99

tional area. Test data exists regarding what happens when a small
opening is introduced in a region subjected to predominant shear
and the opening is enclosed by reinforcement to investigate the
beams failure mode [4,9,10]. A method has been developed to predict the ultimate strength based on the collapse load analysis of a
reinforced concrete beam with large rectangular opening subjected
to a point load [2]. They also assumed that the solid sections of the
beam were rigid and that collapse results from the formation of a
mechanism with four plastic hinges, one at each end of the top
and bottom chords. They found that the ultimate strength increased
with a decrease in the moment to shear ratio at the centre of the
opening and the amount of external shear carried by the top and
bottom chord depends not just on the cross-sectional properties,
but also on the opening size (length and depth) and location of
the opening. Later in 1985, a rational design method was used for
reinforced concrete beams with large rectangular openings [27].
Twelve beams were tested under one point load and subjected to
bending and shear force. They observed that an increase in the
opening size (length and depth) or momentshear ratio at the
centre of the opening increased both crack width and maximum
deection. They also stated that the diagonal bars for corner reinforcement were more effective in both controlling crack width
and reducing beam deection, as shown in Table 1. In 1991, the
behaviour of reinforced concrete continuous beams with large
web openings was studied [28]. Eight beams were tested and it
was found that the location of the opening has very little inuence
on the cracking load, but that openings located in a relatively high
moment region yield smaller collapse load and large deection. The
deection brought about by Vierendeel action and the mode of
collapse remain virtually unaffected by the location of opening.
An analysis of the service load of reinforced concrete with large
web openings in the analytical modelling was proposed by Mansur
et al. [17]. They assumed that the beam was treated as a non prismatic member with two different crosssectional properties (the
soild section and the opening section by replacing the chord members through equivalent continuous medium). A total of 15 reinforced concrete T-beams containing large web openings were
tested [29], each simulating either negative or positive moment.
They found that the presence of a web opening led to a decrease
in both cracking and ultimate strength. They also found that the
external shear may be distributed between chords in accordance
with their exure stiffness based on either gross or cracked transformed section. The critical lateral buckling load of deep slender
rectangular beams containing openings along the centre-lines of
the beams has been studied by Tbevendran and Shandugam [30].
The numerical method which was proposed to predict the critical
load was outlined in detail; cantilever beams and simply supported
beams were considered. The critical loads evaluated numerically
using the energy approach were compared with those values
obtained experimentally and a good agreement was achieved.
The nonlinear analysis and design of statically loaded simply supported post tensioned and pre-stressed concrete beams and girders
with rectangular openings was investigated by Kennedy and Abdalla [31]. Several design parameters were varied such as: opening
length and depth, vertical and horizontal locations of the opening,
location of the applied load, type of cross section, and opening reinforcement. The results from the analytical study were substantiated by test results from 12 post tensioned pre-stressed concrete
beams, eight of which had rectangular sections, whilst the remaining four were T-section beams. A rational method of distributing
the shear between the top and bottom chords of the opening was
also proposed, together with a design procedure against the cracking of such chords. The inuence of openings on the response of
hybrid reinforced concrete T-beams, with the beams subjected to
acyclic load applied at midspan was investigated by Tanijaya
and Hardjito [32]. The experimental work involved testing and

100

A. Ahmed et al. / Materials and Design 40 (2012) 90102

Table 1
Beams details [27].
Specimen

Design ultimate load PUD (KN)

l (mm)

Dt (mm)

do (mm)

Db (mm)

eo (mm)

a + l/2 (mm)

R1
R2
R3
R4
R5
R6
R7
R8
R9
R10
R11
R12

204
162
132
107
89
164
92
138
144
137
131
127

400
600
800
1000
1200
800
800
800
800
800
800
800

110
110
110
110
110
130
90
120
130
110
110
110

180
180
180
180
180
140
220
180
180
180
180
180

110
110
110
110
110
130
90
100
90
110
110
110

0
0
0
0
0
0
0
10
20
0
0
0

1000
1000
1000
1000
1000
1000
1000
1000
1000
800
1000
1200

investigating the structural responses of three hybrid reinforced

concrete T-beams, partially constructed using light weight concrete. An opening was provided on the web of each beam, with
the exception of the third one, that is, the beam was provided with
an opening in the low exural moment-high shear region and in
the high exural moment-shear region. The behaviour of the specimens was discussed based on the observed degradation of
strength and stiffness as well as the energy dissipation capability.
Test results indicated that the presence of web opening caused a
decrease in both cracking and ultimate strengths. The deection
ductility of a beam with a web opening in the low exural moment-high shear region was seen as approximately equal to that
of a beam with an opening in the high exure-shear region.
A three-dimensional nonlinear nite element model suitable for
the analysis of reinforced concrete beams with large openings
under exure was developed by Al-Shaarbaf et al. [33]. Numerical
studies including some material parameters such as concrete compressive strength, amount of longitudinal tensile reinforcement
and opening size on the loaddeection response were conducted.
The nite element solution revealed that the ultimate load and
post-cracking stiffness increased with an increase in the concrete
compressive strength and the extent of the bottom steel reinforcement decreased with an increase in the length or depth of the
opening. The bond anchorage and the shear carrying behaviour
of pre-stressed concrete beams made of Ultra-High Performance
Concrete (UHPC) with and without web openings was investigated
by Hegger and Bertram [34]. Results of the shear tests with multiple openings in the web showed that the remaining shear resistance was approximately 6065% compared to solid beams. The
effect of small circular openings on the shear, exural, and ultimate
strength of beams made by normal and high strength concrete has
also been studied [35]. The main factors of this test were the
changes of diameter, the position of opening and the type and location of reinforcement around the opening as well as changes in the
strength of the concrete. In this investigation nine of the beams
tested were made up of normal concrete and ve of the beams
were made up of high strength concrete; all of which were tested.
The testing beams were loaded as simple beams with two concentrated and symmetrical loads. The effect of concrete strength depends on parameters such as diameter and the position of the
opening. The load under which the rst exural crack is induced
does not depend on the presence or the lack of opening or its situation, but shear cracks around the opening will induce sooner than
shear cracks around a similar area in a solid beam. The increase of
the diameter of the opening in beams with an opening made of
normal concrete will cause a change in the pattern of cracks and
the type of failure from exural failure to frame type or beam type
shear failure. The increase of strength in concrete does not have
much inuence on the ultimate strength, but it will increase the

Stirrups spacing
Sb (mm)

St (mm)

40
40
40
40
40
50
30
35
30
40
40
40

40
40
40
40
40
50
30
45
50
40
40
40

stiffness and improve the serviceability of the beams. The most

critical position of an opening in order to reach the ultimate
strength in beams made of normal concrete is near the support.
In addition to this, the best place for the location of the opening
in these beams is in the middle of a distance between the place
of applied load and support (in the middle of the shear span).
The presence of longitudinal bars on the top and bottom of the
opening is necessary in order to control the cracks and exural
strains around the opening. The installation of diagonal bars and
small stirrups at the top and bottom of the openings will increase
the ultimate strength of the beams with opening.

6. Strengthening with Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) materials

This section presents the use of externally bonded material for
strengthening and updating the performance of RC beams with
openings. A total of 10 beams were tested under static loading, simulating the negative moment regions of reinforced concrete
T-beams [36]. Of these beams nine were fabricated with large openings through the web whilst the other beams had a solid web. They
studied the effect of tension reinforcement area, reinforcement
around the opening, strength of concrete and the shear span to
depth ratio on the strength of such beams. In general, the presence
of web openings decreased both the cracking and ultimate strength,
as well as the stiffness of the beams. Both the shear span to depth
ratio and concrete compressive strength of T-beams with openings
had a pronounced effect on the load bearing capacity of the tested
beams. Both the top chord and bottom chord member independently resisted the shear force of tee beams with openings made
from high strength concrete. The predicted ultimate loads based
on this rule agreed with the experimental ultimate loads for beams
with a shear span to depth ratio equal to 2. In general, the behaviour
of high strength concrete beams with openings was shown to be
quite different from the behaviour of normal strength concrete
beams with openings. Table 2 presents the results compiled by
Zainab [36]. The possibility of reducing the effect of existing circular
web openings in solid beams on both strength and stiffness by
means of strengthening the openings with Glass Fibre Reinforced
Plastics was investigated in [37]. The experimental program consisted of testing 11 simply supported reinforced concrete rectangular beams. The rst beam was solid with no opening and served as
the reference beam. Each of the remaining beams was provided
with one or two circular web openings with different diameters.
Table 3 presents the results found in [37]. Several design parameters including the opening width and depth, as well as amount
and conguration of the Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) sheets in
the vicinity of the opening were investigated by Abdalla [38]. The
experimental program included the testing of 10 reinforced

101

A. Ahmed et al. / Materials and Design 40 (2012) 90102

Table 2
Beams results [36].
Group no.

Beam no.
R

A1
A2
A3

B1
B2

C
D

Pcr

Pu

Puth

Pu/Puth

Mode of failure

10

25.4

24.4

1.036

Shear failure at opening

4
4
4.5

19
19.6
20

20
20
20

0.95
0.98
1

Shear failure at opening

Shear failure at opening
Shear failure at opening

4
4

18.3
19.2

20
20

0.915
0.96

Shear failure at opening

Shear failure at opening

C1
C2

6
3

17.6
14

20
20

0.88
0.7

Flexural shear failure

Flexural tension failure

D1
D2

2
4

14.8
19

14
20

1.057
0.95

Shear failure at opening

Shear failure at opening

Table 3
Beams test result [37].
Specimen

SB1
RO2
RO3
RO4
RO5
RO6
UO7
UO8
UO9
UO10
a

Dimensions of openings
W (mm)

H (mm)

NAa
100
200
300
300
300
100
200
300
300

NAa
100
100
100
150
150
100
100
100
150

Concrete strength
fcu (Mpa)

Conguration of CFRP strengthing

Cracking load
Pcr (kN)

Ultimate load Pu (kN)

Mode of failure

49
52
49
51
49
49
43
49
52
42

NAa
Type
Type
Type
Type
Type
NAa
NAa
NAa
NAa

30
25
20
20
15
20
25
13
20
5

83
86
73
62
35
34
41
43
41
22

Flexure at mid-span
Flexure at mid-span
Flexure at mid-span
Shear at opening
Shear at opening
Shear at opening
Shear at opening
Shear at opening
Shear at opening
Shear at opening

1
1
1
1
1

NA denotes not applicable.

concrete beams, ve of which were strengthened with FRP sheets

around the opening, whilst four were tested without strengthening,
and the remaining beam was solid without an opening and was
considered as the control beam. The efciency of using Carbon Fibre
Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) sheets to control local cracks around
openings and to resist excessive shear stresses in the opening
chords was examined. Based on the results of this investigation,
they found that the presence of an un-strengthened opening in
the shear zone of a reinforced concrete beam signicantly decreased its ultimate capacity. With an un-strengthened opening
with a height of 0.6, the beam depth may reduce the beam capacity
by 75%. The application of CFRP sheets according to the arrangement presented in this research greatly decreases beam deection,
controls cracks around the opening, and increases the ultimate
capacity of the beam. The use of FRP sheets to strengthen the area
around openings may retrieve the full capacity of the beam for
relatively small openings. The shear failure at the opening chords
of strengthened openings occurs due to a combination of shear
cracking of concrete and bond failure of the FRP sheets glued to
the concrete. The method was shown to be capable of estimating
the shear capacity of reinforced concrete beams with CFRP
strengthened openings.
There are two patterns of strengthening by FRP rod. The rst
involves FRP rods enclosing the opening and the other involves placing FRP rods diagonally throughout the entire depth of the beam.
Both were investigated by Pimanmas [39]. The author found that
simply placing FRP rods around the opening was not fully effective
because a diagonal crack can propagate through the beam with the
crack path diverted to avoid intersecting with the FRP rod. When
FRP rods were placed throughout the entire beams depth, a significant improvement in loading capacity and ductility was achieved,
similar to strengthening by pre-fabricated internal steel bars. The
exural failure mode was restored. An experimental study to

investigate the efciency of external strengthening of such beams

when provided with large openings within their shear zones was
conducted by Allam [40]. It was found that both types of material
used for strengthening namely steel plates and CFRP sheets as well
as its conguration scheme, signicantly affected the efciency of
strengthening in terms of beam deection, steel strain, cracking,
ultimate capacity and failure mode of the beam. Test results
revealed that the efciency of external strengthening of beams with
openings increased signicantly when such strengthening was
applied to both the inside and outside edges of the beam opening.
The increase was also found to be more signicant than in the
case of only strengthening the outside edges. Furthermore, it was
discovered that using steel plates for strengthening beams
with openings was much more efcient than in the case of CFRP
sheets.

Fig. 19. Photos of specimens strengthened with CFRP at failure [41].

102

A. Ahmed et al. / Materials and Design 40 (2012) 90102

The interfacial shear stresses found to be inuenced by the geometry parameters such as thickness of the FRP plate and adhesive layer
in range of the different degrees [41], where the interfacial shear
stress concentrations and levels increase obviously with the
increase of the thickness of the FRP plate. A typical failure of a specimen strengthened with CFRP is shown in Fig. 19. The cross-sectional
shape found to has a signicant inuence on the effectiveness of the
CFRP-connement under concentric loading [42], where member
with the circular cross-section beneted the most, followed by the
member with the square cross-section and the gain in load capacity
of RC members with rectangular cross-sections due to CFRPconnement depends on the aspect ratio of the cross-section.

7. Conclusion and future directions

This paper has reviewed the existing work related to RC beams
with openings. Based on the aforementioned review, it is evident
that there are gaps in the previous research which must be investigated. Below are the main points which can be considered as
conclusions and directions for future work in order to ll the gaps
which exist in the work carried out thus far.
1. Since no research has been conducted regarding the comparison
of existing design approaches of RC beams with small openings,
future work must take into consideration such comparisons
based on a number of experiential samples.
2. Future work must also cover the comparison between the proposed three plastic hinge approaches as well as the plasticity
approach based on a number of experimental samples.
3. Strengthening of RC beams with externally bonded steel plates
must be investigated corresponding to different parameters
such as the steel plates mechanical and geometrical properties
as well as their congurations.
4. Strengthening of RC beams with externally bonded FRP materials, namely CFRP sheets and fabric, GFRP sheets and fabric and
so on, must be investigated with different parameters such as
the FRP materials mechanical and geometrical properties and
congurations.
5. Since no repair work has been conducted on RC beams with
openings, it would be extremely benecial were an experimental study to be conducted for the repairing of damaged RC
beams with openings using externally bonded FRP material or
steel plates with different parameters such as materials
mechanical and geometrical properties and congurations.

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