ULTIMATE SHEAR STRENGTH OF STEEL-CONCRETE COMPOSITE PLATE GIRDER WITH LONGITUDINAL STIFFENERS LOADED IN SHEAR

The contribution of longitudinal stieners to the shear capacity of composite plate girders has not been studied. This paper aims to investigate, both analytically and numerically, the ultimate shear strength of longitudinally stiened simply supported steel-concrete composite plate girders under shear loading. In this study, a theoretical formula is proposed to estimate the ultimate shear strength of such girders. The proposed method is approximate, simple, does not require any complex mathematical operations and can be applied to composite plate girders at the preliminary stages of design. The proposed analytical method considers the tension eld action within the plate girder web panel and the shear failure of the concrete slab. The method incorporates the eects of the concrete slab, composite action, and web shear buckling of the composite girder. The ultimate shear capacity of the composite plate girder may be considered as the combined shear strength resisted by the steel part of the girder and that by the concrete slab. These two components can be computed separately and summed up to obtain the shear strength of the composite girder. The method used to determine the shear strength of the steel part is similar to the Cardi model, in which the web panels are assumed simply supported along the longitudinal and transverse edges.
On the basis of previous experimental studies and detailed information obtained from ffnite-element studies, it may be considered that each individual subpanel in the longitudinally stiened composite plate girder can develop its own tension ffeld independently of adjacent subpanels. Furthermore, the web panels are assumed simply supported along the longitudinal and transverse edges. Three dierent locations of longitudinal stieners are investigated and appropriate analytical methods are proposed for each case. These locations are: close to the compression ange of the steel girder, near to the tension ange of the steel girder and in the middle of the plate girder.
Several validated ffnite element models of the composite plate girders having different conffgurations of longitudinal stieners are also generated to verify the proposed method and compare the analytical and numerical outcomes. These three-dimensional ffnite element models are developed to account for the geometric and material nonlinear behavior of composite girders. The models are frst veriffed by experimental values obtained for girders with no longitudinal stifeners, which have been tested by other researchers, and, afterwards, different confgurations of longitudinal stifeners are added to the models.
The calculated ultimate shear strengths using the proposed method are in good agreement with both numerical and experimental values. This indicates that the proposed analytical equations can be applied to predict the ultimate shear strength of the girders for design of- ffce use. In comparison with the un-stiffened girders, it is also observed that longitudinal stieners are able to reduce the buckling effects of the web steel plate, increase the elastic shear buckling strength, and, therefore, the ultimate shear capacity of the girders.