Shear strength of tapered end web panels

Abstract

Hot rolled beams can show insufficient strength or inertia and result in the utilization of steel plate girders in the design. For cost-effective design, tapered plate girders are employed, where the depth of the end web panel is linearly varied with the panel length. In most of design codes, the shear capacity is well estimated for prismatic web panels, with reasonable accuracy. The tapered web panels, however, are lacking investigation. The objective of this numerical study is to examine the effect of different geometric parameters of tapered end web panel on the elastic shear buckling and the nominal shear strength. The geometric parameters in question are, namely: tapering angle; tapering direction; panel aspect ratio; web slenderness ratio; flange to web thickness ratio; and attachment of transversal vertical stiffeners to panel ends. The finite element method has been employed, where linear elastic buckling and nonlinear inelastic post-buckling analyses have been performed. The numerical results have been verified against classical web buckling theory, design codes, and experimental results published in the literature. Furthermore, regression analysis has been performed for the obtained results, where new design rules have been proposed for both elastic and nominal shear strength. It has been reported that tapered end web panels possess post-buckling strength that is highly dependent on the geometric parameters.