Large-scale load carrying capacity test of curved steel box girders with/without horizontal stiffeners subjected to bending

Abstract

Due to the girder curvature, automatic welding robots cannot be applied to welding of horizontal stiffeners to the girder web in the fabrication of curved steel box girder bridges, which increases the manufacturing costs. Therefore, elimination or reduction of the number of horizontal stiffeners without increasing the web thickness is desirable. In the present study, ultimate load carrying capacity test has been carried out and the failure process was verified in order to evaluate the mechanical effects of horizontal stiffeners on the ultimate load carrying capacity. From the experimental results, it was found that, even in case the horizontal stiffeners are eliminated, the ultimate load carrying capacity decrease is much smaller than the decrease of the bending buckling strength of the web panel specified in the general design code. Furthermore, it was concluded that the compression flange of box girders restrains bending buckling of the web panel.