Abstract
A study of behavior of curved plate girders under bending is made, emphasizing mainly the interactions between the flange plates and the web plate. The analyses are carried out by using finite element method based on the finite displacement theory. In this paper, the behavior of curved plate girders under bending is described, such as out-of-plane displacemnent of web plate, in-plane stress distribution and corresponding effective web width, resisting moment of girders and so on. The results shows that so called vertical buckling of flange plate does not arise from loss of the bending capacity of the plate girder. Moreover discussions about the more reasonable boundary conditions of the web panel as partial structural element for analyzing curved plate girders are described.
