1/7/2020 Why are stiffeners used in plate girders?

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Edge Stiffener Stiffeners Plate Girder Bridges Design Bridge Structural Engineering Related Questions

Why are stiffeners used in plate girders? Where are plate girders used?

Where are bearing stiffeners provided in a plate

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9 Answers webs in a plate girder?

What are the types of plate girder bridges?

S Hussain, B.E Civil engineering from University of Kashmir (2018)
Answered Nov 14, 2018
What is the difference between stringers, cross
Stiffeners: girders and main girders in bridges?

In a plate girder, the web is often made very thin to derive maximum economy in weight.
The webs, when they are inadequate to carry the load, are made strong and stable by the
provision of a wide variety of stiffeners. Sometimes double stiffeners are adopted near the
bearing and in such cases the over hangs beyond the support should be limited to 1/8 of
the depth of the girder. The stiffeners are classified based on the role they play in
strengthening the web and they are mentioned as follows.

1. The function of a bearing stiffener is to preclude any crushing of the web at

locations of heavy concentrated loads. Thus, bearing stiffeners transfer heavy
reactions or concentrated loads to the full depth of the web. They are placed in
pairs on the web of plate girders at unframed girder ends and where required for
concentrated loads. They should fit tightly against the flanges being loaded and
extend out towards the edges of flange plates as far as possible. If the load
normal to the girder flange is tensile, the stiffeners must be welded to the loaded
flange. If the load is compressive, it is necessary to obtain a snug fit. To
accomplish this goal, the stiffeners may be welded to the flange or the
outstanding leg of the stiffener may be milled.

2. A load carrying stiffener prevents local buckling of the web due to any
concentrated load.

3. An intermediate transverse web stiffener mainly improves the buckling

strength of the web due to shear. They continue to remain effective after the web
buckles to provide anchorage for the tension field and finally they prevent the
flanges from moving towards one another. They are also called as non-bearing
stiffeners or stability stiffeners.

4. Torsional stiffeners are provided at supports to restrain the girders against

torsional effects.

5. Local strengthening of the web under the combination of shear and bending is
provided by diagonal stiffener.

6. The tensile forces from the flange are transmitted to the web through the
tension stiffener.

7. A longitudinal stiffener increases the buckling resistance of the web. The same
stiffener may perform more than one function and in such cases, their design
should comply with the requirement of those functions.

7.2k views · View 16 Upvoters

Related Questions More Answers Below

Where are plate girders used?

Where are bearing stiffeners provided in a plate girder and why?

What exactly is a girder? And what is a plate girder? What is the difference between girder
& beam? Lastly what is gantry girder?

What is an intuitive explanation for "Tension Field Action" used in the post buckled
configuration of webs in a plate girder?

What are the types of plate girder bridges?

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1/7/2020 Why are stiffeners used in plate girders? - Quora
Ashutosh Kitey, Civil Engineer at Hasan Juma Backer Trading and Co.LLC, Oman
(2016-present)
Search for questions, people, and topics Sign In
Answered Jul 9, 2017

Stiffeners- As name suggest, stiffeners are used to make plate girder stiff or rigid.

Stiffeners are typically plate welded to the web. These plate cab be applied to either just
one side of the web or both side. By addition of these extra plates we increase the moment
of inertia of plate girder which enhances the rigidity in turns it prevents buckling.

Image Source- Google

Now, the above fig shows longitudinal and transverse stiffener.

The longitudinal stiffener can increase shear and bending strengths of plate girder.
Generally, they are not essential as transverse stiffeners. However, we can ...
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Aniket Anerao, Diploma Civil Engineering, K.K.Wagh Polytechnic, Nasik (2016)

Answered Jul 1, 2017 · Author has 72 answers and 65.5k answer views

A girder is usually an I section which looks like this

For an I section beam/girder the flange portion will be

subjected to loads and thus will be in compression. This applied compression will result in
the in the bending of the outward projection of flange just like a cantilever beam would.
To overcome this bending, transverse stiffners are provided under the outward projection
of the flange. But, however there is also a chance that when the transverse stiffners take
load from the flange, they may exposed to buckling, as in case of a column. So to avoid
the buckling of the stiffners, longit...
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Kanwal Jit Singh, M Tech Structural Engineering & Civil Engineering, Indian
Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (1980)
Answered Feb 22, 2018

when we have a continuous steel beam and once we draw the bending moment diagram ,
based on the ordinate of MD steel calculation is done known as Ast. however at points of
contraflexure where the + BM changes to - BM we require to to strengthen these points .
Similarly at max BM points at ends/junctions where the BM is max to save on steel for
entire section we stiffen these with plates.

Hence the requirement of stiffners.

3.7k views · View 1 Upvoter

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What is the difference between stringers, cross girders and main girders in bridges?

What is gantry girder?

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Miguel Alves
Answered Nov 17, 2018

Plate girders are composed of steel plates welded together. These girders have usually big
sections, and as a result the plates have often high slendernesses, particularly the webs.
The higher the slenderness, the more its behaviour and design are affected by buckling
fenomena.

To avoid this, the designer can increase the thickness of the plate, but in most cases is
more economic to add stiffeners. These, are smaller plates welded to the web, effectively
dividing each panel in smaller sub panels with lower slendernesses. Usually , the stiffeners
are vertical for I shaped girders, and only on...
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Related Questions

Where are plate girders used?

Where are bearing stiffeners provided in a plate girder and why?

What exactly is a girder? And what is a plate girder? What is the difference between girder
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What is an intuitive explanation for "Tension Field Action" used in the post buckled
configuration of webs in a plate girder?

What are the types of plate girder bridges?

What is the difference between stringers, cross girders and main girders in bridges?

What are the types of girders?

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