Quantitative evaluation on ultimate resistance of coped beams via experimental investigation and parametric analysis

A quantitative evaluation method for the ultimate resistance for engineering practice was proposed through experimental research, numerical simulation and parametric analysis. Four top-coped and double-coped beam specimens with varying web depth–thickness ratios were designed and tested, with their failure modes and mechanical performance characteristics being clarified. A simplified numerical model with high agreement with the experimental data was established. Based on the analysis of parametric models, the influence laws of key parameters such as cope length, cope depth, web net depth and web thickness on the normalized ultimate load were systematically investigated. The results show that the stability of top-coped beams is mainly controlled by the ratio of cope length to web thickness, while that of double-coped beams is dominated by the ratio of cope length to the equivalent web net width. Prediction formulas for the ultimate resistances of four types of coped beams (TC-F, TC-R, DC-F, DC-R) were established through a parametric study. A comparative analysis and verification were conducted using test data from both previous studies and present study. The results show that the predictions are in strong agreement with the experimental values.