PLATE GIRDERS

Built-up sections with deep thin webs

susceptible to buckling in shear

Mr.Naveen Choudhary,GEC,Ajmer

1
 Types of Plate Girders
• Unstiffened Plate Girder

web plate flange plates

• Transversely Stiffened Plate Girder

ITS
BS

• Transversely and Longitudinally Stiffened Plate Girder

LS

Mr.Naveen 2
Choudhary,GEC,Ajmer
 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

Mr.Naveen Choudhary,GEC,Ajmer 3
 Shear resistance of a web - 1
q
A B

E q

45o
D
C
q
Unbuckled Shear panel

Mr.Naveen Choudhary,GEC,Ajmer 4
 BUCKLING OF WEB PLATES IN SHEAR

cr

Shear buckling of a plate

Mr.Naveen Choudhary,GEC,Ajmer 5
 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
is“critical shear stress”

– Critical shear stress in such a case is given by

2
 2E t
qcr  k s  
12 1   2   d 
 

– Boundary conditions assumed to be simply

supported

Mr.Naveen Choudhary,GEC,Ajmer 6
 Shear resistance of a web - 3

• shear buckling coefficient (ks) given by

2
d  c
k s  5.35  4   where  1, i.e. for wide panels
c d

2
d  c
k s  5.35    4 where  1, i.e. for webs with closely
c d
spaced transverse stiffeners

c
Mr.Naveen Choudhary,GEC,Ajmer 7
 • 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

Mr.Naveen Choudhary,GEC,Ajmer 8
 Post buckled behaviour - 1

Anchoring of Tension Field

Mr.Naveen Choudhary,GEC,Ajmer 9
 Tension field action

Mr.Naveen 10
Choudhary,GEC,Ajmer
 • 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

Mr.Naveen Choudhary,GEC,Ajmer 11
 Collapse behaviour - 1

Tensile membrane stress at yield

Collapse of the panel

Mr.Naveen Choudhary,GEC,Ajmer 12
 Three phases of tension field action

Pre-buckling post-buckling collapse

Mr.Naveen Choudhary,GEC,Ajmer 13
 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

Mr.Naveen 14 14
Choudhary,GEC,Ajmer
ULTIMATE BEHAVIOUR OF TRANSVERSE WEB STIFFENERS - 1

Force imposed on transverse stiffeners by tension field

Mr.Naveen 15 15
Choudhary,GEC,Ajmer
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 

Mr.Naveen 16 16
Choudhary,GEC,Ajmer
 GENERAL BEHAVIOUR OF
LONGITUDINALLY STIFFENED GIRDERS – 1

Longitudinal and Transverse stiffeners

Mr.Naveen Choudhary,GEC,Ajmer 17
8.4 Shear
The factored design shear force, V, in a beam due to
external actions shall satisfy
V  Vd
Vd = design strength calculated as , Vd = Vn / γm0
8.4.1 The nominal plastic shear resistance under pure
shear is given by: Vn = Vp

Av f yw
Vp 
3

Mr.Naveen Choudhary,GEC,Ajmer 18
Av = shear area
 8.4.2 Resistance to Shear Buckling
d for an unstiffened web
 67
tw   250 / f y
  kv for a stiffened web

a) Simple Post-Critical Method

The nominal shear strength is
Vn = Vcr Vcr = d twb
b = shear stress corresponding to buckling,

b) Tension Field Method

The nominal shear strength is
V n = V tf

Mr.Naveen Choudhary,GEC,Ajmer 19
 8.4.2.2 Shear Buckling Design Methods

a) Simple Post-Critical Method -The nominal shear strength is

Vn = Vcr Vcr = d twb
b = shear stress corresponding to buckling, determined as follows:
a) When w < 0.8  b  f yw / 3

b) When 0.8 < w < 1.25 b


 b  1  0.625w  0.8 f yw / 3 
c) When w 1.25
b =0.9 fyw/(3w2)
0.8 1.25 w
Cont…

Mr.Naveen Choudhary,GEC,Ajmer 20
 λw = non -dimensional web slenderness ratio for shear buckling stress,
given by

w  f yw ( 3  cr ,e )

The elastic critical shear stress of the web, cr is given by:

k v 2 E
 cr 
 
12 1   2 d / t w 
2

kv = 5.35 when transverse stiffeners are provided only at supports

= 4.0 +5.35 /(c/d)2 for c/d < 1.0
= 5.35+4.0 /(c/d)2 for c/d  1.0

Cont…
Mr.Naveen Choudhary,GEC,Ajmer 21
 b) Tension Field Method - the nominal shear resistance, Vn, should be

 
Vn=Vtf
Vtf  d t w  b  0.9 wtf t w f v sin 
 Vnp

fv = yield strength of the tension field obtained from

 2
f v  f yw  3  b 
2 2 0.5
 
d
 =1.5 b sin 2  tan 1  
c

 = inclination of the tension field 0.5

2  M fr 
s   c
sin   f y t w 
The width of the tension field, wtf, is given by:
wtf = d cos – (c-sc-st) sin  sc
2

M fr  0.25b f t f f yf 1  N f / b f t f f yf /  m 0 
2
 wtf

Mr.Naveen Choudhary,GEC,Ajmer 22
c st
 8.6 Design of Beams and Plate Girders with Solid Webs

8.6.1 Minimum Web Thickness

8.6.1.1 Serviceability Requirement

a) when transverse stiffeners are not provided
d
 180  (web connection by flanges along both longitudinal
t wedges)
d
 90
tw (web connection by flanges along one longitudinal edge only)

b) when transverse stiffeners only are provided;

d
 200 w
tw
i) when c  d
c
 200 w
tw
ii) when 0.74 d < c < d
d
 270 w
iii) when c < 0.74 d tw

Mr.Naveen Choudhary,GEC,Ajmer 23
 c) when transverse and longitudinal stiffeners are provided at
one level only
(0.1 d from compression flange) d
 250 w
tw
i) when c > d

c
 250 w
ii) when 0.74 d < c < d tw

d
iii) when c < 0.74 d  340 w
tw
d) when a second longitudinal stiffener (located at neutral axis is
provided )

d
 400 w
tw

Cont…
Mr.Naveen Choudhary,GEC,Ajmer 24
 Design Procedure
Initial Sizing
1) Taking L/d as 15, calculate min. d and provide suitably

2) Afreqrd. = BM/ (fy/mo)d ; using bf = 0.3d select flange plate

Also calculate Nf = axial force in the flange

3) Check that flange criteria gives a plastic section

b = (bf – tw)/2 and b/ tf < 7.9

4) Web thickness for serviceability 67 < d/ tw < 200

choose such that tw > d/200

5) Check for flange buckling into web

Assuming c >1.5d , d/ tw < 3452

Mr.Naveen Choudhary,GEC,Ajmer 25
 Design Procedure
6) Check for shear capacity of web
V < Vd = Vn/ mo; Vn = A (fyw /3) or Vcr

7) Check for calculating resistance to shear buckling

d/ tw > 67 (kv/5.35) use kv for c/d > 1

8) Simple post-critical method

Vcr = d tw b where b = (w) and w = (cr )

9) If V < Vcr/ mo then safe else tension field calculation

reqrd.

10) Vn = Vtf = (fv and ); also calculate Mfv = (Nf )

If V < Vn/ mo safe ! else revise design
Mr.Naveen Choudhary,GEC,Ajmer 26
 Design Procedure
• 8.7 Stiffener design
– a) Intermediate Transverse Web Stiffener  To improve
the buckling strength of slender web due to shear.

– b) Load Carrying Stiffener  To prevent local buckling

of the web due to concentrated loading.

– c) Bearing Stiffener  To prevent local crushing of the

web due to concentrated loading .

– d) Torsion Stiffener  To provide torsional restraint to

beams and girders at supports.

– e) Diagonal Stiffener To provide local reinforcement to

a web under shear and bearing.

– f) Tension Stiffener  To transmit tensile forces applied

to a web through a flange.
Mr.Naveen Choudhary,GEC,Ajmer 27
 Design Procedure
11) End panel design – check as a beam between flanges

H q  1.25.Vdp (1  Vcr / Vdp ) Rtf = Hq/2

Rtf
Av = c t and Vtf = Av (fy /3) > Rtf
c
12) Mtf = Hqd/10

MR = tc3/12*fyd / (c/2) > Mtf

13) Intermediate Transverse Stiffener Design

i) decide to provide stiffener on one side or both sides
ii) choose tq > tw ; outstand bs < 14tq also < b

14) check for minimum stiffness Cl.8.7.2.4 p91

for c = 1.5d, c > 2 d giving

I prov. = (bs-tw/2)3 tq/12 > 0.75dtw3 bs

Mr.Naveen Choudhary,GEC,Ajmer tq 28
 Design Procedure
15) Check for Buckling Cl.8.7.2.5
p91
Stiffener force, Fq = V - Vcr/mo  Fqd
Buckling Resist. Pq with 20tw on either side Cl.8.7.1.5
p90
Calculate Ixx and A, rxx = (Ixx/A)
Leff = 0.7d,  = Leff/rxx, Find fc bs
Pq = fc A > Fq tq

16) Connection to web Cl.8.7.2.6

p92
shear = tw2 / 8bs kN/mm choose appropriate weld size
Fq  Fx Fx Ms
19) 
Check for IntermediateStiffener
1 under Load Cl.8.7.2.5
Fqd Fxd M ys
p91

Mr.Naveen Choudhary,GEC,Ajmer 29