Transverse stiffeners are used in slender steel plate girders along the span to give web lateral support and increase plate girder shear resistance. According to several studies, transverse stiffeners are primarily engaged in out‐of‐plane bending to laterally limit the edges of the panel as it buckles, rather than axial compression to anchor the tension field. As a result, the axial loading defined in EN 1993‐1‐5 [1] for the design of transverse stiffeners, based on tension field action, is usually deemed to be substantially larger than that observed in laboratory testing and numerical simulations. The test results of six plate girders loaded to failure, with slender webs and two transverse stiffener geometries, are presented. FE‐models that accurately replicate the tests provide a thorough view of the plate girder behaviour. The stiffeners internal forces are evaluated during plate girder loading up to failure. The transverse stiffener internal forces attained by both models are compared. It is confirmed that both the axial compression and the bending moment in the intermediate transverse stiffeners are much lower than the values prescribed by the EN 1993‐1‐5 [1].
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Simplified formula of the web slenderness limit given in EN 1993‐1‐5 to prevent the flange‐induced buckling does not usually govern the web design other than very slender Class 4 plate girder webs in steel S235 to S355. However, the same formula applied to plate girders designed in HSS S690 gives lower slenderness limits likely to govern web's design and restrains the possibilities of reducing their thickness. This paper reviews the background of the simplified formula currently used and compares the web slenderness limits obtained with numerical results from full nonlinear analysis of slender high strength steel girders.
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The shear strength of slender steel‐concrete composite plate girders is usually evaluated through one of the several design methods proposed in the last 50 years, taking into consideration the steel girders shear strength only. Although for composite girders the concrete slab may increase the shear strength, this contribution is not considered in these methods. But, the shear strength of steel‐concrete composite plate girders can be assessed by means of two recent proposed methods. The results from design methods are compared with experimental tests data.
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