CV4102 Advanced Steel Design

CV4102
Advanced Steel Design
Behaviors and actions of plate girder

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CV4102 Advanced Steel Design

Topics
• Loading and supports
• Behavior under bending
• Plate-like and column-like buckling of
thin plate under direct stress
• Shear buckling and tension field action
(TFA)
• Failure modes of plate girder
• Actions of stiffeners and end posts

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CV4102 Advanced Steel Design

Loadings and supports

• Plate girder assumes a deep I-beam structural
form (for this course)
• Support conditions: Simply or continuous support
as “fixed” support is difficult and expensive to
construct
• Main loading: Vertical loading in form of udl or
point (patch) loading
• Hence, bending stresses (direct stress and shear)
are the main concerns in plate girder design

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CV4102 Advanced Steel Design

Loadings and supports

A typical simply supported plate girder
BMD

SFD

Max. shear force and support

reaction => resisted by web for Intermediate
shear and end post for reaction stiffener to
(b)
End post Flange stiffener
prevent shear
buckling

Web

Max. bending moment =>

resisted by flanges

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CV4102 Advanced Steel Design

Loadings and supports

A plate girder with continuous support
BMD

SFD

Max. shear force and support

reaction => resisted by web for
shear and end posts for Intermediate
(b) reaction Flange stiffener to
End post stiffener prevent shear
buckling
Web

Max. bending moment and shear force, support

reaction => resisted by flanges for bending, web
for shear and stiffeners for reaction
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CV4102 Advanced Steel Design

Behavior under bending

• Under uniaxial bending, a plate girder is a deep I-
section
• Bending is mainly resisted by the two flanges
• For Class 1, 2 or 3 flange, fy could be reached at failure
• For Class 1 or 2 web, fy could be reached at failure
• For Class 3 web, fy could be reached only for the
extreme fibres when it fails. A linear stress (strain)
distribution could be assumed with NA at centroid of
the section. Alternatively, an equivalent Class 2 section
may be assumed.

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CV4102 Advanced Steel Design

Behavior under bending

fy fy

NA G NA

fy fy
Effective area Flange and Web: Flange and Web:
Class 1 or 2 Class 3
G= Centroid of the Compression Tension
gross section

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CV4102 Advanced Steel Design

Behavior under bending

• For Class 4 flange, fy could not be reached for the whole
compression flange: Only part of the compression flange
will be effective and assumed to reach fy when the section
fails
• The tension flange is fully effective and the whole tension
flange could reach σ1<fy when it fails
• For Class 4 web, fy could not be reached for the whole web
portion which is under compression: Only part of the
compression web will be effective
• For plate girder with Class 4 flange and/or web, since parts
of the section are not effective, the NA does not pass
through the centroid of the section

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CV4102 Advanced Steel Design

Behavior in bending
fy Part of the compression flange
and web buckle before fy is
reached, zero stress assumed

G
NA NA
Flange and Web
fully effective at
tension part
σ1<fy
Effective area
Flange and Web: Compression
Non effective area Class 4
G= Centroid of the Tension
gross section

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CV4102 Advanced Steel Design

Plate-like and column-like buckling of thin plate under direct stress

• The web of a plate girder is essentially a thin plate subjects to direct
(bending) stress as well as shear stress
• Thin plate tends to buckle before fy is reached for the whole plate
• Understanding of plate buckling behaviors is important
• Under direct stress, a thin plate with aspect ratio α=a/b ≥ 1 will have
sufficient post-buckling strength => “Plate-like buckling”
• Geometrically prefect plate => Pre and post critical behaviors are
obvious but more gradual for imperfect plate
b
Note: b is always
the dimension of
a the edge where the
direct stress is
applied.
For a plate girder,
b is the web/panel
height while a is
the panel length
(Beg: 2.4.1, Fig. 2.12)
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CV4102 Advanced Steel Design

Plate-like and column-like buckling of thin plate under direct stress

• After the elastic critical stress σcr is reached, resistance of the plate is
not exhausted due to stress re-distribution (reduction at the middle
part, but increase at the two ends)
• Ultimate resistance reached after fy is reached at the two ends =>
Non uniform stress distribution (σact)
σ act
reduced cross
σ fy section method fy
lim

beff /2 beff /2
reduced stress
method

σ lim
fy
a
b

(Beg: 2.4.1, Fig. 2.13)

b

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CV4102 Advanced Steel Design

Plate-like and column-like buckling of thin plate under direct stress

• The non-uniform stress σact is not convenient for design
• In EC3, two methods are proposed: The Effective Width Method
[most parts of EC3 1-5] and the Reduced Stress Method [1-5: 10]
• The effective width method => Reduce the gross width to an
appropriate effectivep width beff adjacent to the edges and assume
that fy is reached there
• The reduced stress method uses the average stress σlim =ρfy over gross
width σ act
reduced cross
σ fy section method fy
lim

beff /2 beff /2
reduced stress
method

σ lim
fy
a
b

(Beg: 2.4.1, Fig. 2.13)

b

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CV4102 Advanced Steel Design

Plate-like and column-like buckling of thin plate under direct stress

• Both methods shall give the same ultimate resistance Pult such that
b
beff σ lim

0
∫
Pult = σ act dx = beff f y = bσ lim = bρf y and ρ =
b
=
fy
• For a single plate or a section under pure compression, both methods
give the same result. Otherwise, the effective width method gives
higher resistance [1-5, 10]
σ act
reduced cross
σ fy section method fy
lim

beff /2 beff /2
reduced stress
method

σ lim
fy
a
b

(Beg: 2.4.1, Fig. 2.13)

b

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CV4102 Advanced Steel Design

Plate-like and column-like buckling of thin plate under direct stress

• Method to determine beff is given
in [1-5: 4.4(3)] and (Beg: 2.4.8)
• For shorter plate with lower a/b
value, the post-buckling
resistance gradually diminishes
=> 2D behavior changes to 1D
(column) like behavior
• For a given plate, it can be shown
that the critical stress for plate-
like buckling, σcr,p is always
greater than the critical stress for
[1-5: 4.4 Fig. 4.3, Column like behavior]
column-buckling, σcr,c

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CV4102 Advanced Steel Design

Shear buckling and tension field action

• The thin and deep web is also subjected to shear and thus
vulnerable to shear buckling
• For a thin web, buckling could occur before the “full” shear
capacity of Av f y 3 is reached
• Shear buckling could be delayed if appropriate rigid
transverse stiffeners are installed to limit the extent and
separate the buckling regions

Unstiffened web Stiffened web

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CV4102 Advanced Steel Design

Shear buckling and tension field action

• If rigid transverse stiffeners are provided, three different
stages can be identified before final failure plastic hinge
a fy
τcr σt σt θ

τcr b
θ φ cφ
V > Vcr
Vcr c Vult

Unbuckled Stage Post-buckled Stage Collapse Stage

• In the second (post-buckled) stage, stress redistribution
leads to development of tension field inside the web
• In the collapse stage, four plastic hinges are formed =>
Flange resistance also contributes to the shear capacity of
the web (if it is not exhausted in bending).

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CV4102 Advanced Steel Design

Shear buckling and tension field action

• Tension field action causes the web to act as the diagonals
of an N girder truss
C
L a Plastic hinge locations a

d d

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CV4102 Advanced Steel Design

Failure modes of plate girder

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CV4102 Advanced Steel Design

Actions of stiffener and end post

Stiffeners
• Intermediate transverse stiffeners: Not under patch or
concentrated load nor support => Provide rigid support for
tension field actions (vertical compressive member of N
truss) and flange resistance for web buckling

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CV4102 Advanced Steel Design

Actions of stiffener and end post

Stiffeners
• Longitudinal stiffeners: Change the aspect ratio of the web
plate to increase global buckling strength (both plate and
column like) under bending (i.e. increase σcr,p and σcr,c) and
shear (via aspect ratio changes)

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CV4102 Advanced Steel Design

Actions of stiffener and end post

End Post
• A special form of load bearing transverse stiffener => They
provide “anchor” supports for tension field actions (vertical
compressive member of N truss), flange resistance for web
buckling and the support reactions
• Both rigid and non-rigid end posts are possible

[1-5: 5.2. Fig. 5.1 End post]

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