FUNDAMENTAL STUDY ON ULTIMATE STRENGTH OF PLATE GIRDER ENDS WITH CRACKS AROUND SOLE PLATES SUBJECTED TO PREDOMINANT SHEAR FORCE

Abstract

The residual load carrying capacity of a plate girder end panel with a fatigue crack around the sole plate subjected to predominant shear force is investigated experimentally and analytically in this study. First of all, the experiment is carried out using 3 types of the test specimens with cracks of different length. Then, elasto-plastic and finite displacement analysis is conducted varying the crack length for investigating the influence of the crack length on the residual load carrying capacity. It can be found through the experiment and analysis that the load carrying capacity of the plate girder end panel with a crack passing throughout the cross section of the lower flange plate and penetrating the lower web part shorter than 1/6 times the web height does not decrease significantly compared with that of the intact plate girder end panel without crack. Finally it is suggested that the residual shear buckling capacity of the plate girder end panel with the crack can be approximately and accurately evaluated by using the plate slenderness parameter R_τw using the reduced aspect ratio considering the location of the crack.