What is the difference between H-beam and I-beam in shape

As the name indicates, I-beam is a "I" section steel. The inner surface of the upper and lower flange has an inclination of 1:6, which makes the outer flange thin and the inner flange thick. As a result, the cross-section characteristics of I-beam in the two main planes differ greatly, and it is difficult to play the strength characteristics of the steel in application. Although there are also thickened I-beams on the market, the structure of I-beams has determined their short plates with torsional resistance.

H-beam is widely used in today's steel structure construction. Compared with I-beam, it has many differences. The first is the flange. The inner surface of the flange has no inclination, and the upper and lower surfaces are parallel. The section characteristics of H-beam are better than that of traditional I-beam, channel steel and angle steel. H-beam is a kind of economic section high-efficiency profile with more optimized section area distribution and more reasonable strength weight ratio. It is named H-beam because its section is the same as the English letter "H". The two outer sides of H-beam have no inclination inside and are straight. This makes the welding and splicing of H-beam easier than that of I-beam, and the mechanical properties per unit weight are better, which can save a lot of materials and construction time.