THE ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF STIFFENED PLATE BRIDGE COMPONENTS. IN: STRUCTURAL STABILITY RESEARCH COUNCIL. 1990 ANNUAL TECHNICAL SESSION, STABILITY OF BRIDGES, ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, APRIL 10-11, 1990

This paper presents recent research on the behavior and design of orthogonally stiffened compression flanges and transversely stiffened webs of steel bridge girders. A non-linear finite element package has been used to examine the collapse behavior of a wide range of stiffened plate geometries. In the case of the stiffened compression flanges, design formulations have been developed based on established approaches and the design curves validated using the numerical results. For the transversely stiffened webs, the analysis results have been used to define the destabilizing loads acting on the stiffeners and the collapse characteristics of the stiffened plates. A simple design requirement has then been developed which gives an optimum stiffener section at which yield of the stiffener outstand and collapse of the plate panel occurs simultaneously. Analyses in both areas have been validated by comparison with previous analyses with other numerical packages and with available experimental results.