Post‐buckling Strength of Plate Girders subjected to Shear: New Design Method

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper describes a calculation method for steel plate girders with transverse web stiffeners subjected to shear. It may be used for predicting the failure load or, as a design method, to determine the optimal amount of internal web stiffeners. The method is based on the theory of plasticity. Many other theories have been developed, but the method presented differs from these theories by incorporating the strength of the transverse stiffeners and by the assumption that the tensile bands may pass the transverse stiffeners, which often is observed in tests. Other methods have only dealt with a single web field between two stiffeners.The method is called the plastic tension field method. It is based on the theory of plasticity and is analogous to the so‐called diagonal compression field method developed for reinforced concrete beams with transverse stirrups, which was adopted in EC2.