WEB BUCKING TESTS ON WELDED PLATE GIRDERS. PART 2: TESTS ON PLATE GIRDERS SUBJECTED TO BENDING

While the aim of the entire investigation is to evaluate the post-buckling strength of plate girders, it is the objective of this part to present the test results obtained from the girders subjected to pure bending. The determination of a plate girders strength beyond its web buckling load, the so-called post-buckling strength, first requires complete familiarity with the web buckling limit. Today, this problem can be consider to be almost solved, as the literature survey presented in Part 1 indicates. Although the present investigation is not specifically directed toward any further theoretical studies of the web buckling load, attention will surely be focused on this phenomenon by these experiments. The more complex problem is the determination of the carrying capacity of plate girders.