Abstract
Steel plates with varied thickness have a potential for rationalization of steel bridge design. For example, longitudinally profiled steel plates already have been adapted to flanges of an I-shaped girder / a box girder to reduce the weight of the bridge and the process of bridge construction. Recently, the analytical study on the mechanical behavior of steel girders with a transversely profiled web plate has been carried out, and it has been concluded that there exists the preferable cross sectional shape of steel plate from the viewpoint of the load carrying capacity and ductility. In this paper, the static loading tests for I-shaped girders with a profiled web plate in thickness are carried out. It is found that the web plate whose thickness is larger at the middle height of the girder has superiority for shear buckling strength; on the other hand, that the web plate whose thickness is larger at the close to flange plate has superiority for bending strength.
