A castellated beam is created by slicing an I-beam longitudinally along its web in a specific pattern. The goal here is to separate and rejoin the beam with a deeper web. Castellated beams offer increased depth compared to the original section, while maintaining nearly the same weight. The key advantage of these members is their ability to increase depth without adding weight, making them highly efficient for enhancing load-bearing capacity. They provide greater moment-carrying capacity without additional steel. Also, they are useful in situations with height limitations. However, these benefits also come with additional failure mechanisms and necessitating checks.

With ProtaStructure 2025, you can now model, analyze and design castellated beams. In the attached document, you will explore how to insert a castellated beam, how to design a non-composite castellated beam and the detailing process.