Cellular beam is a further development of the traditional

castellated beam A castellated beam is a Beam (structure), beam style where an I-beam is subjected to a Longitude, longitudinal cut along its web following a specific pattern. The purpose is to divide and reassemble the beam with a deeper web by taking advantag ...

. The advantage of the steel beam castellation process is that it increases strength without adding weight, making both versions an inexpensive solution to achieve maximum

structural load A structural load or structural action is a force, deformation, or acceleration applied to structural elements. A load causes stress, deformation, and displacement in a structure. Structural analysis, a discipline in engineering, analyzes the ef ...

capacity in

building construction Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and com ...

. The difference between cellular beam and castellated beam is the visual characteristic. A cellular beam has ''round openings'' (circular pattern) while the castellated beam has ''hexagonal openings'' (hexagonal pattern), both of which are achieved by a cutting and welding process. Cellular beams are usually made of

structural steel Structural steel is a category of steel used for making construction materials in a variety of shapes. Many structural steel shapes take the form of an elongated beam having a profile of a specific cross section. Structural steel shapes, sizes, ...

, but can also be made of other materials. The cellular beam is a

structural element Structural elements are used in structural analysis to split a complex structure into simple elements. Within a structure, an element cannot be broken down (decomposed) into parts of different kinds (e.g., beam or column). Structural elements can ...

that mainly withstands structural load laterally applied to the axis of the

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

, and influences the overall performance of

steel frame Steel frame is a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical steel columns and horizontal I-beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame. The developm ...

d buildings. The type of

deflection Deflection or deflexion may refer to: Board games * Deflection (chess), a tactic that forces an opposing chess piece to leave a square * Khet (game), formerly ''Deflexion'', an Egyptian-themed chess-like game using lasers Mechanics * Deflection ...

is mainly done by

bending In applied mechanics, bending (also known as flexure) characterizes the behavior of a slender structural element subjected to an external load applied perpendicularly to a longitudinal axis of the element. The structural element is assumed to ...

Introduction

In 1987, Westok Structural Services Ltd of

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

invented and patented the structural steel cellular beam. In 2009, the Steel Construction Institute developed software to assist engineers evaluating the dynamic behaviour of

composite Composite or compositing may refer to: Materials * Composite material, a material that is made from several different substances ** Metal matrix composite, composed of metal and other parts ** Cermet, a composite of ceramic and metallic materials ...

floors supported by cellular beams. Since 1940, civil engineers have endeavoured to find solutions to reduce the cost and weight of

construction. Due to the restrictions with regard to the maximum permissible deflections, the high-strength properties of

cannot always be optimally used. As a result, several new steel mixtures have been identified to increase the

stiffness Stiffness is the extent to which an object resists deformation in response to an applied force. The complementary concept is flexibility or pliability: the more flexible an object is, the less stiff it is. Calculations The stiffness, k, of a b ...

of steel components without significantly increasing the required steel weight. The use of steel girders with web openings (SBWOs) for structures such as industrial buildings has proven to be extensive. Civil engineers came up with a solution to use a composite design of ultra-flat floor joists together with concrete used on the Douala Grand Mall in

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

. Since the 2010s, further investigations into steel construction and fire protection have been carried out, which led to innovations in the field of passive fire protection that could save lives and assets. In 2018, Kloeckner Metals UK, member of Klöckner & Co SE invested in dedicated equipment for precision cutting of cellular beams.

References

{{Reflist Structural engineering Structural steel

Introduction

See also

References