Structural behaviour and design of innovative hollow flange steel plate girders

Overview

Cold-formed steel members are becoming popular due to the benefits they offer over conventional hot-rolled steel members. Many research works have focused on proposing cold-formed beams for short to intermediate span applications. However, there is less consideration for using cold-formed steel sections for long span applications. Therefore, this research study focuses on proposing a group of built-up hollow flange steel plate I-girders by welding currently available high strength and cold-formed rectangular hollow sections (RHS) to a web plate, which is named as HFSPG. This research will investigate the bucking and ultimate strength behaviour of HFSPGs using finite element analyses and laboratory experiments, and develop suitable design rules within the national and international steel design standards.

Research activities

This research will include literature review, material property tests, section and member moment capacity tests and finite element modelling. The results will be used to investigate the applicability of currently available design guidelines to predict the section and member moment capacities of HFSPGs, based on which suitable modifications will be proposed.

Expected findings

This research will provide an efficient and cost effective hollow flange steel plate girder section to be used in long span applications along with necessary design guidelines to predict their flexural behaviour and capacity.

Research team members

Nilakshi Perera PhD researcher

Professor Mahen Mahendran



Figure 1: Proposed Hollow Flange Steel Plate Girders (HFSPG)
Figure 1: Proposed Hollow Flange Steel Plate Girders (HFSPG)

 

Figure 2: Experimental test set-up for section moment capacity tests of HFSPGs
Figure 2: Experimental test set-up for section moment capacity tests of HFSPGs

 

Fig. 3 Finite element modelling of HFSPGs
Fig. 3 Finite element modelling of HFSPGs