Dimensioning Aids for Stiffened and Unstiffened Plates According to Eurocode 3 Part 1‐5

Abstract

AbstractIn Germany stiffened plate in bridge construction must be verified using the method of reduced stresses (MRS) according to DIN EN 1993‐1‐5 [2, 3]. Unstiffened plates on the other hand may be verified either according to the effective widths method or according to the reduced stress method. In order to shorten the time‐consuming verification of the standardised verification formats for pre‐dimensioning which is particularly prevalent for stiffened plates diagrams are developed and presented in the present paper on the basis of the MRS by reformulating the buckling verification which enable a quick pre‐dimensioning. With the diagrams, the dimensioning of plate thicknesses and stiffener spacings can be carried out in a few simple and comprehensible steps. The diagrams are selected on the basis of the geometry parameters .a, b. and t or the applicable boundary conditions. For stiffened plate, the maximum permissible spacing of the longitudinal stiffeners or the required main plate thickness can be determined. Diagrams for the dimensioning of longitudinal stiffeners by determining minimum stiffnesses are also presented. The minimum stiffnesses are derived from the geometry of the linear buckling shapes of simply stiffened plate.