PLATE GIRDERS -I

Teaching Resource in

INTRODUCTION
For Heavy Loads And Long Spans, choice is

Beam with cover plates

Steel truss
Plate girders
Two or more regular beams
This presentation is about the behaviour and
design of plate girders

Teaching Resource in

INTRODUCTION - I
A

Flange plate
Web plate

Section A-A
Flange plate

Typical plate girder with intermediate and end stiffeners

Teaching Resource in

INTRODUCTION - 2

Teaching Resource in

INTRODUCTION - 3

Cross section of fabricated plate girders

Teaching Resource in

INTRODUCTION 4

COMPONENTS OF A PLATE GIRDER

Flange plate

- flexure

Web plate

- shear

Stiffener

- prevents buckling

Teaching Resource in

SHEAR RESISTANCE OF
STIFFENED GIRDER
Shear resistance of a web
Pre-buckling behaviour (Stage 1)
Requirements of equilibrium in an element inside a
square web plate subject to a shear stress result in
generation of complementary shear stresses
This results in element being subjected to principal
compression along one diagonal and tension along
the other

Teaching Resource in

Shear resistance of a web - 1

q
q

45o
D
q

Unbuckled Shear panel

Teaching Resource in

Shear resistance of a web - 2

As the applied loading is incrementally enhanced,

plate will buckle along direction of compressive
diagonal - corresponding shear stress in plate
iscritical shear stress
Critical shear stress in such a case is given by

qcr k s

2E

t

12 1 2 d

Boundary conditions
supported

assumed

Teaching Resource in

to

be

simply

Shear resistance of a web - 3

shear buckling coefficient (ks) given by

d
k s 5.35 4
a

k s 5.35

2
where

a
1 , i .e . for wide panels
d

a
4 where 1 , i .e . for webs with closely
d
spaced transverse stiffeners

Teaching Resource in

10

 Post buckled behaviour (Stage 2)

Compression diagonal is unable to resist any
more loading beyond elastic critical stress
Any further increase in shear load is supported
by a tensile membrane field, anchored to top
and bottom flanges and adjacent stiffener
members on either side of web
Total state of stress in web plate may be
obtained by superimposing post-buckled
membrane tensile stresses upon critical shear
stress

Teaching Resource in

11

Post buckled behaviour - 1

Post buckled behaviour

Teaching Resource in

12

Post buckled behaviour - 2

State of stress in the web in

the post buckled stage

Teaching Resource in

13

 Collapse behaviour (Stage 3)

When load is further increased, tensile
membrane stress continues to exert an
increasing pull on flanges
Eventually resultant stress obtained by
combining the buckling stress and membrane
stress reaches yield value for web - can be
determined by Von-Mises yield criterion

p2 p 2
p . p 90 3q2 p 2yw
90

Teaching Resource in

14

Collapse behaviour - 1
Tensile membrane stress at yield

Collapse of the panel

Teaching Resource in

15

Collapse behaviour - 2

Teaching Resource in

16

Collapse behaviour - 3

Teaching Resource in

17

Collapse behaviour - 4

Teaching Resource in

18

Collapse behaviour - 5

Teaching Resource in

19

Collapse behaviour - 5
Once web has yielded, final collapse of girder will occur
when four plastic hinges are formed in flanges
By using virtual work method, failure load can be
computed from

VS
qcr
a p yt

3 sin cot
V yw q yw
d p yw

4 3 sin

p yt

M pf

p yw d 2 t . p
yw

This is applicable only if flanges are PLASTIC

Teaching Resource in

20

Weak flanges
When a plate girder has weak flanges, tension
field is NOT supported by flanges
Field anchors entirely on transverse stiffeners
Failure load can be computed from
VS
qcr
a p yt

3 sin cot
V yw q yw
d p yw

Teaching Resource in

21

Weak flanges - 1

Teaching Resource in

22

Very Strong flanges

When Very Strong flanges are employed,
hinges will form at four corners, constituting a
picture frame type mechanism
Tension field angle () is 45
Ultimate shear in this case is given by:
VS
1 qcr
3

V yw 4 q yw
2

1 qcr
1
4 q yw

d M pf
4 3 .
a d 2t p

yw

Teaching Resource in

23

Very strong flanges - 1

Picture frame mechanism of strong flange

Teaching Resource in

24

Very Thick webs

In case web is thick, it will yield before buckling
failure will form by a picture frame mechanism

Very Slender webs

Very slender webs are rarely used
In very slender webs qcr/qyw is extremely small
and there will be significant post-buckled tension
field
Teaching Resource in

25

WEB SUBJECTED TO COMBINED

BENDING AND SHEAR
When a girder is subjected to bending moments and low
shear, its ultimate capacity is conditioned by interaction
Any point on interaction diagram shows co-existent values
of shear and bending moment that girder can sustain
When applied moment is high, failure will be triggered by
collapse of flanges by one of following:
By yielding of flange material
By inward buckling of the compression flange
By lateral buckling of the flange

Teaching Resource in

26

WEB SUBJECTED TO COMBINED BENDING AND SHEAR - 1

Interaction between bending and shear effects

Teaching Resource in

27

WEB SUBJECTED TO COMBINED BENDING AND SHEAR - 2

In zone ABC, presence of additional bending

moment requires following three factors to be
considered:
Reduction in web buckling stress due to presence of
bending stresses
Influence of bending stresses on value of membrane
stress required causing yield in web
Reduction of plastic moment capacity of flanges due to
presence of axial flange stresses caused by bending
moment

Teaching Resource in

28

Modified web buckling stress

Modified web buckling stress due to coincident
bending stress may be computed from following
interaction Equation:

qcrm

cr

f mb
1

f
crb

qcrm =
modified shear buckling stress
qcr =
elastic critical shear stress in web
fmb =
compressive bending stress in extreme fibre at
mid panel due to the bending moment
fcrb =
buckling stress for plate due to a pure bending
moment

Teaching Resource in

29

Modified membrane stress for web yielding

Modified expression for membrane stress in
presence of applied bending moment is given by

1
1
p ytm A
2
2

A 2 4 p 2 3q 2 p 2
b

crm
yw

A = 3 qcrm sin 2 + pb sin2 - 2pb cos2

pb = Value of bending stress, which varies over both
depth and width of the web panel.

Teaching Resource in

30

Reduction of plastic moment

capacity of flanges
When high axial forces are developed in flanges,
their effects in reducing plastic moment capacity
of flange plates must be taken into account
From plasticity theory, the reduced capacity is
given by

M' pf M pf

pf

1
p yt

pf is the average axial stress for the portion of the

flange between hinges

Teaching Resource in

31

Webs subjected to pure bending

In a thin walled girder, web subjected to
compressive bending stress will buckle, losing
its capacity to carry further compressive stresses
Compression flange will carry practically all
compressive stresses - girder is unable to
develop full plastic moment of resistance
If no lateral buckling occurs girder will fail by
inward collapse of compression flange

Teaching Resource in

32

Webs subjected to pure bending - 1

Ultimate moment capacity to be determined by a

simple formula:
Mu
Aw d

1 0.0005
5.7
My
Af t

p yf

MF

My

My = Bending moment required to produce yield

in extreme fibre of flange assuming fully
effective web (i.e. neglecting web buckling)

Teaching Resource in

33

ULTIMATE BEHAVIOUR OF
TRANSVERSE WEB STIFFENERS
Transverse stiffeners play important role
by increasing web buckling stress
by supporting tension field after web buckling
by preventing tendency of flanges to get pulled
towards each other

Stiffeners should possess sufficient

rigidity to ensure that they remain straight,
while restricting buckling to individual
web panels
Teaching Resource in

34

ULTIMATE BEHAVIOUR OF TRANSVERSE WEB STIFFENERS - 1

Force imposed on transverse stiffeners by tension field

Teaching Resource in

35

GENERAL BEHAVIOUR OF
LONGITUDINALLY STIFFENED GIRDERS
Generally located in compression zones of girder
Main function - to increase buckling resistance of
web
When it is subject predominantly to shear would
develop a collapse mechanism, provided
stiffeners remained rigid up to failure
Once one of sub panels has buckled, post
buckling tension field develops over whole depth
of web panel and influence of stiffeners may be
neglected

Teaching Resource in

36

GENERAL BEHAVIOUR OF LONGITUDINALLY STIFFENED GIRDERS - 1

Longitudinal and Transverse stiffeners

Teaching Resource in

37

CONCLUSIONS
Considered ultimate behaviour of plate girders
Fundamental theoretical relationship based on
buckling and post-buckling theories have been
established
In some case, semi-empirical procedures have
been suggested to ease tedium of lengthy
calculations
Transverse stiffeners have been considered in
some depth
Use of longitudinal stiffeners has also been
described

Teaching Resource in

38