Lateral Torsional Buckling Response of Compact I-Shaped Welded Steel Girders
Publication: Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 148, Issue 10
Abstract
Recent studies investigating lateral torsional buckling suggest that North American steel design provisions may overestimate the bending resistance of welded girders that buckle laterally in the inelastic range. Furthermore, these provisions do not distinguish between rolled and welded members, but welded girders are widely suspected of possessing unfavorable residual stress distributions that may cause them to be more susceptible to lateral torsional buckling than their rolled counterparts. However, lack of sufficient supporting experimental test data may render existing analytically based assessments of the design equations inadequate. To address the paucity of physical testing, an experimental program was developed to determine the lateral torsional buckling resistance of full-scale I-shaped welded three-plate steel girders fabricated with current shop processes. This paper describes the development of the test program and a unique girder-stability test bed. Test results for seven girders, including measured initial geometric imperfections, load–displacement responses, and moment capacities, are then presented. A finite-element model of the test specimens, validated against the test data, is finally used to investigate the adequacy of the beam design provisions specified in the Canadian and US steel design standards. The results confirm that the current design equations can accurately predict the moment resistance of compact welded steel girders that fail in either the elastic or inelastic lateral torsional buckling mode.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
This research was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada and the CISC Centre for Steel Structures Education and Research at the University of Alberta. All plate material for the girders was donated by SSAB and fabrication of the girders and ancillary testing fixtures was completed by Supreme Group. These contributions are gratefully acknowledged. Finally, the authors wish to thank the reviewers for their cogent and constructive comments, which improved the quality of the paper.
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Published In
Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 148 • Issue 10 • October 2022
Copyright
© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 5, 2021
Accepted: Apr 15, 2022
Published online: Jul 20, 2022
Published in print: Oct 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Dec 20, 2022
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Cited by
- Sheldon C. Twizell, Xiao Lin “Dimple” Ji, Ali Imanpour, Robert G. Driver, Lateral–Torsional and Distortional Buckling of I-Shaped Welded Steel Girders, Journal of Structural Engineering, 10.1061/JSENDH.STENG-11961, 149, 9, (2023).