Aalto University

Faculty of Engineering and Architecture Department of Structural Engineering and Building Technology Rak-11.3001 Design of Bridges Literal Assignment 5.12.2012

Steel Plate Girder Bridges

Contents
Symbols and abbreviations......................................................................................................... 1 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 3 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 2 Types of steel plate girders .......................................................................................... 3 Types of plate girder bridges ....................................................................................... 4 Example of steel girder bridge..................................................................................... 5 Distinctive features ...................................................................................................... 7

Structural behavior .............................................................................................................. 8 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Buckling of plate elements .......................................................................................... 8 Lateral buckling of beams ......................................................................................... 12 Stiffeners .................................................................................................................... 13 Grillage analysis ........................................................................................................ 15

Symbols and abbreviations

t s k L G It E I xs tts ts Wt B N A I Thickness of a cross-section Central line of a cross-section Dimensionless constant Length of a Beam Shear modulus Torsion constant Modulus of Elasticity Sectorial inertia Poisson's ratio Total shear strain Pure shear strain Average shear strain Normal stress caused by torsion Torsional rigidity Bimoment Axial force Cross-sectional area Moment of inertia

x M M Q S lcr

Axial stress Bending moment Warping torque Sectorial coordinate Shear force Static moment Slenderness Effective length

1 Introduction
1.1 Types of steel plate girders
Plate girders become popular in the late 19th century when price of steel dropped and it was economically possible to use steel instead of cast iron. They were first used for railway bridges. For small spans up to 25 m it is possible to use rolled I-sections and universal beams (Fig 1.1). Apart from a pair of vertical stiffeners over their end supports, these do not require any other fabrication. However, height of universal beams is not enough for longer spans so it is required to use I-section girders made of separate plates. Girder can be then designed for special needs of each project. This makes it possible to optimize the cross-section. Plate girder can also have changing cross-section along the span.

Figure 1.1. Rolled beam girder bridge (longitudinal girders HEB340, transverse girders HEB160)

Plate girders were first assembled by bolting web and flanges together with help of angle profiles. There could be multiple flange plates on top of each other when needed. As the bending moment fell along the span, the outer plates were stopped or curtailed. When welding became popular there was no need for the angles anymore. Curtailment of the flange area is achieved in welded construction by using thinner or narrower flange plates in regions of reduced bending moments, butt-welded to each other at the ends. The outer plates are made successively narrower than the inner ones, to which they are connected by fillet welds along the longitudinal edges. The outer plates are discontinued as the bending moments fell along the span. This discontinuity at the end of each curtailed flange plate is a potential fatigue problem. There may be other variations and combinations; for example the one shown in Fig. 1.2(e) that has inclined plates are attached between the flange and the web. They support the flange tip, as well as acting as a longitudinal stiffener to the web, and more importantly, they provide some torsional rigidity to the girder.

Figure 1.2. Different type of plate girders

1.2 Types of plate girder bridges

A bridge is called plate girder bridge if the main load-carrying structure is made of plates. Commonly used type for railways is so called half through bridge where deck is supported by lower flange of the girder. For other bridges the usual is deck type bridge.

Figure 1.3. Half through and deck type plate girder bridges

Main differences for these two types are structural height and stiffening against lateral buckling. Half through bridges need significantly lower structural height for the abutment but it is not possible to use braces against lateral buckling. Stiffening of the cross-section in this case must be done by rigid U-frame connection between deck and the beams. For deck type bridges stiffening may be done simply by bracings.

Figure 1.4. Half through plate girder bridge

Figure 1.5. Combined half through and deck type plate girder bridge

1.3 Example of steel girder bridge

Wiesbaden-Schierstein Bridge (Germany) crosses the Rhine with total length of 1282m. At the crossing, the Rhine is divided by an island into two streams (Fig. 1.6). This is reflected by

the span arrangements. The main crossings consist of two sets of continuous spans: 70, 171, 70 and 85, 205, 85m.

Figure 1.6. Wiesbaden-Schierstein Bridge.

The orthotropic deck carries a 20 m roadway and two 2 m footpaths. The girder depth varies from 4,4 m to 7,4 m, corresponding to span/depth ratios of 46 to 27,5, based on the main span. The web thickness is 12 mm. A typical spacing of longitudinal stiffeners in the compression region is 648 mm, equal to 54 times the thickness. The base of the web is butt welded to a vertical 500 x 20 mm flitch plate which, in turn, is welded to the top 1500 mm x 30 mm flange plate. In addition, as many as eleven 1500 x 15 mm flange plates are connected to the upper plate by edge welds and rivets.

Figure 1.7. The cross-sections of Wiesbaden-Schierstrein Bridge.

1.4 Distinctive features

Since plate girders of bridges have relatively long spans, the self weight of the girder is good to be minimized. For this reason, the used cross-sections are usually slender and belong to the class 4. For slender parts of class 4 cross-sections local buckling needs to be taken into account. The material in the web is not as efficient as that in the flange in resisting bending moment. However, the shear resistance of an I-plate is mainly related to the web area. Due to these aspects the shear resistance determines the minimum web area. The most efficient design of a plate girder cross-section is thus to make the web as thin and deep as possible. Also this aspect encourages to designing slender webs which are liable to buckling and may require stiffening. Vertical stiffeners are provided for the webs to improve their buckling resistance, and in the case of very deep and thin webs horizontal stiffeners may also be necessary. Open cross-sections of plate girders have low resistance against torsion. Also moment resistance in weaker direction is notably lower than in stronger direction. Thus, another major problem to consider is lateral buckling, as discussed before.

The main distinctive features of steel plate girders are local and global buckling. The solutions for these problems are stiffeners and bracings.

2 Structural behavior
2.1 Buckling of plate elements
The webs and flanges of steel plate girders are comprised of flat steel plates. The design of these girders consists of assigning appropriate boundary conditions to each of these plate elements, ensuring that each plate element does not fail due to local buckling, yielding or an interaction of the two and that the girder does not fail due to global buckling. It should be noted however, that it is desirable for global buckling to be the first mode of failure reached as the loads on a girder are increased past the anticipated service loading. Global buckling is associated with large deformations which give warning of failure and is generally less brittle and sudden than local buckling. A thin, flat elastic plate may buckle under the action of loads applied in the plane at mid thickness. Provided that the deflections w are small compared to the thickness t, they must satisfy the differential equation:

where D is plate bending rigidity:

Figure 2.1 Buckling of a plate element due direct compression.

Figure 2.1 shows a flat rectangular plate with uniform stress in the X direction loaded by direct compression. is positive if compressive. Consider a plate with all edges pinned. Then the plate may deflect to shape:

at a critical load given by

m an n represent the number half-waves in the X and Y directions. For cr to be a minimum, the number half-waves in the Y directions must be 1 (n=1). The number in the X direction depends upon on the geometry of plate. The plate can buckle not only from direct compression but also from bending or shear or a combination of these. Consider a plate of length a, width b and thickness t, simply supported on all four edges and subjected to a linearly varying stress pattern on two opposite edges of dimension b, i.e. stresses caused by equal and opposite applied in-plane bending moments on these edges (Fig. 2.2). By taking a sufficient number of terms from a double Fourier series expression for the deflected shape of the plate, it can be shown that instability occurs when the magnitude of the applied stress reaches a critical value.

Figure 2.2 Buckling of plate element due bending.

Consider a rectangular plate with larger side a, smaller side b and thickness t, with all the edges simply supported and subjected to in-plane shear stresses as shown in Fig. 2.3. When the applied shear stress reaches a critical value the plate buckles; the buckling pattern appears in a pronounced form if there are no or little in-plane restraints on the edges. Diagonal buckles

appear in elongated shapes along the direction of principal tension 11, i.e. several ripples forming across the direction of principal compression 22. Closed-form solutions of the Saint Venant equation are not available, but numerical solutions have been obtained by the energy method by taking several terms of a Fourier series expression of the deflected form. The critical value of the shear stress can be expected as

where the buckling coefficient k is given approximately by

It should be noted that b in the above is always the smaller side of the plate.

figure 2.3 Buckling of a plate element due shearing.

In a plate subjected to shear stresses there is often a substantial reserve of strength after the elastic critical buckling value of the shear stress is reached. In a state of pure shear stress there are principal tensile and compressive stresses in directions at 45 to the direction of the shear stress, as shown in Fig. 2.3. Buckling of the plate is caused by the principal compressive stress in direction 22, resulting in ripples forming with their crests stretched in the direction of principal tension 11. Because of the ripples, the compressive stress cannot increase beyond the value at the critical buckling stage, but the diagonal tension continues to increase with applied shear. The increased diagonal tensile stresses form what is known as a tension field. These tensile stresses have to be resisted on the horizontal and vertical boundaries. The flexural rigidity of the flanges resists the pulling-in effect of the tension field, while the transverse web stiffeners act as struts to provide support to the flanges, thus forming a trusstype system of forces.

Figure 2.4. Tension field.

Figure 2.5. Unstiffened and stiffened web

Figure 2.6. Shear buckling in laboratory

Shear resistance near supports (maximum shear stresses) is often increased by haunches.

Figure 2.7. Variable depth girders: (a) straight haunches; (b) curved haunches; (c) curved haunches; (d) continuously curved lower flange.

2.2 Lateral buckling of beams

A beam required to resist the bending moment in the plane of its higher flexural rigidity may buckle out of the plane of loading, i.e. deflect laterally and twist (Fig. 2.8) if it does not have sufficient lateral stiffness of its own or lateral support provided to it. An ideal perfectly straight beam with a high material yield stress, loaded exactly in its plane of bending containing its shear centre, will remain straight until the applied bending moment reaches a critical value Mcr which depends upon the length of the beam and its geometric proportions. This is the linear theory of buckling or buckling by bifurcation. However, a beam with some initial misalignment and/or residual stresses and/or inclined loading will tend to deflect laterally and twist as the bending moment increases, and its failure is initiated when the in plane bending stresses, residual stresses and stresses caused by lateral deflection and twist combine to cause yielding. This is the non-linear or divergence theory of buckling.

Figure 2.8. Lateral buckling of a beam.

The critical bending moment of a perfectly straight elastic beam with cross-section symmetrical about both axes is given by

Where EIy = flexural rigidity about the minor axis GJ = torsional rigidity EIw = warping rigidity Le = effective length = is a correction factor, just less than 1.0, to correct for deflection due to bending; it is given approximately by (Ix-Iy)/Ix, where Ix is the major axis moment of inertia. Usually it is not possible to support bridge girders laterally. Thus, lateral buckling must be prevented by stiffening the bridges cross-section by bracings or rigid connections.

2.3 Stiffeners
Transverse stiffeners (e.g. bearing stiffeners) increase shear resistance and carry concentrated transverse forces. In addition, transverse stiffeners reduce the effective length of lateral buckling and together with cross-frames or diaphragms reduce distortional deformations of cross-sections. Failure due to concentrated loads can be as local buckling of the web in the region where it joins the flange (web cripple), or overall buckling of the web throughout its depth (web buckling) (Fig 2.9). Transverse stiffeners are usually designed to be sufficiently stiff not to buckle when the longitudinal stiffeners do.

Figure Transverse stiffeners

Figure 2.9. (a) Web buckling; (b) Web crippling.

Longitudinal stiffeners increase the shear resistance as well as the resistance to direct stresses and patch loading. They are usually designed to be most effective. Normally this is achieved when a further increase of the stiffener cross section does not significantly increase the resistance of the stiffened plate Longitudinal stiffeners can greatly increase the bending strength of plate girders. This additional strength can be used to control the lateral deflection of the web which increases the buckling resistance that the web can carry and also improves the bending resistance of the flange due to greater web restraint.

Figure 2.10. Longitudinal (and transverse) stiffener(s)

Figure 2.11. Girder with stiffeners and haunches

Figure 2.12. Effect of transverse stiffener

2.4 Grillage analysis

In a bridge deck constituted by a set of plate girders supporting a concrete deck, the most convenient way to obtain the bending moments and shear force is by the assumption that the deck consists of a grillage of longitudinal and transverse beams. The continuous concrete slab is replaced by a series of discrete parallel beams spanning between the steel beams. If there are transverse members connected to the main longitudinal girders, then the grillage consists of these longitudinal and transverse girders. Generally the concrete deck is made to act compositely with the steel girders by the provision of shear connectors. In such cases the concrete slab is taken as a flange of the steel beam, with an effective area equal to the cross area of the slab between the steel girders divided by the modular ratio (the ratio between Youngs modulus of steel and concrete)(Fig.2.1).

The analysis for forces and moments in individual girders is commonly based on the linear elastic theory of structural behavior. The plastic-hinge type of analysis for continuous spans is not suitable for bridges for the following reasons: (1) Methods currently available for analyzing the lateral distribution of vehicle load over several beams are based on the principles of linear elastic behavior of the beams and concrete slab. (2) Moment-rotation capacity has been established only for compact beam sections. (3) The principle of superposition does not hold good in plastic analysis and thus it will be extremely difficult to combine various live load cases and effects of temperature, etc. with the dead load.

Literature
[1] [2] [3] OConnor Colin. Design of Bridge Superstructures. John Wiley & Sons, New York 1970, pp. 22-111. Chatterjee Sukhen. The Design of Modern Steel bridges. 2nd edition. Blackwell Science Ltd, Cornwall 2003. pp. 91-182 ISBN 0-632-05511-1. Beg Darko, Kuhlmann Ulrike (et al.). Design of Plated Structures. European Convention for Constructional Steelwork 2010. pp 121-137. ISBN 978-92-9147-1003. Lawrence Martin, John Purkiss. Structural Design of Steelwork to EN 1993 and EN 1994. pp 132-174. ISBN13: 978-0-7506-5060-1. Dr. Seshu Adluri. Structural Steel Design, Plate Girders: designhttp://www.engr.mun.ca/~adluri/courses/steel/pptfiles1/Topic-Plategirders.pdf http://www.lusas.com/case/bridge/critical_buckling_analysis.html

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