Numerical modelling of steel plate girders at normal and elevated temperatures

Abstract

The main goal of this study is to increase the knowledge on the behaviour of steel plate girders subjected to shear buckling at both normal and elevated temperatures. Hence, numerical models were duly validated with experimental tests from the literature. Experimental tests on steel plate girders with different configurations were numerically reproduced, showing a good agreement between numerical and experimental results. Afterwards, applying the validated numerical models, sensitivity analyses on the influence of initial imperfections were performed. Different values for the maximum amplitude of geometric imperfections were considered and residual stresses were also taken into account. Finally, the effect of the end supports configuration was also studied aiming to understand the strength enhancement given by the rigid end support at normal temperature and evaluating if that strength enhancement is maintained in case of fire.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Flexure–shear interaction in hybrid steel I-girders at ambient and elevated temperatures

“…Thereby, by applying initial geometrical imperfections, it must be turned into a problem with continuous response rather than bifurcation. Usually, the probable constructional distortion of steel plates is considered as a multiple of the first mode shape of buckling obtained by an elastic buckling analysis (Broujerdian et al, 2015, 2016; Graciano et al, 2011; Reis et al, 2016b). In this article, applying shear load on two sides of the middle stiffeners using ABAQUS shell edge load command, first eigenmode of each girder is obtained by linear buckling analysis.…”

“…Initial imperfection with a shape compatible with the first buckling mode decreases the strength more than other shapes. On the other hand, increasing the imperfection amplitude causes reduction in the ultimate strength (Broujerdian et al, 2016; Chacón et al, 2010a; Garlock and Glassman, 2014; Graciano et al, 2011; Reis et al, 2016a, 2016b) For structural plate elements, in the absence of a high-precision analysis of the geometric imperfection, 80% of the essential manufacturing tolerance for welded profiles (0.8D/100) may be used as the equivalent geometric imperfection at both ambient and elevated temperatures (Chacón et al, 2010a; EN 1993-1-5, 2006; Graciano et al, 2011; Reis et al, 2016a, 2016b), where “D” denotes the web depth of the plate girder. Thereafter, the initial shape of girder in nonlinear static analysis is assumed to be compatible with the first buckling mode of the girder with the amplitude of 0.8D/100.…”

“…The girders were simply supported with a concentrated load applied at the mid-span. All the geometrical and material properties as well as the support and loading conditions of the aforementioned test are available in the works by Lee and Yoo (1999) and Reis et al (2016b). In this article, in order to evaluate the proposed simulating technique at ambient temperature, the test model G4 was selected and the results obtained from numerical analysis were compared with those of experimental one.…”

“…Vimonsatit et al (2007) presented the results of an experimental work on 18 simply supported steel I-girders loaded predominantly with a concentrated load applied at the mid-span at both ambient and elevated temperatures. All the geometrical and material properties as well as the support and loading conditions are completely reported by Reis et al (2016b) and Vimonsatit et al (2007). In this study, the test model G3 was selected and the results obtained from numerical analysis were compared with the experimental data at elevated temperature.…”

A New Approach to Estimate the Critical Shear Stress of Stiffened Plate Girder

“…All the geometric and material properties, as well as the support and loading conditions of the aforementioned experiment, are available in Refs. [6,17]. In this study, to evaluate the proposed simulation technique, the test model G2 is selected and the results obtained from numerical analysis are compared with those of experiments.…”