Ultimate Resistance of Diagonally Stiffened Thin Steel Webs in I‐girders

Abstract

AbstractA common structural feature in steel bridges is the use of twin‐I‐girders as the main structural elements. These can reach large dimensions and high weight presenting high values of local slen‐derness resulting in reduced resistance values due to local buckling of the web. This paper explores alternative structural solutions to enhance the stability of slender webs in steel bridges. The central concept to be analyzed is adding a diagonal stiffener able to transfer the shear loading near the supports, avoiding the shear buckling of the web. One problem with this solution is that welding may not be suitable as it introduces residual stresses and local distortion of the web, thus eliminating the potential benefits of the diagonal stiffener. To characterize the ultimate behavior of I‐girders, an experimental study was envisaged and published by the authors and now is used to calibrate a numerical model. The main goal of the calibrated numerical is to develop a parametric study of diagonally stiffened I‐girders which ultimately will allow to propose an analytical model to compute the ultimate load.