Elastic buckling of web plates in I-girders under patch and wheel loading

This paper makes a brief review of the earlier research on the elastic buckling of rectangular plates with simply supported and clamped boundary conditions, as well as the buckling of web plates in I-girders subjected to patch load. New investigation has been carried out to simulate the realistic load and the restraining conditions of the web plates in I-girders. The buckling of a large number of models under patch load was analyzed with ANSYS and formulae were proposed to predict the elastic buckling coefficients of webs in I-girders. The rotational restraints provided to the web plates by the flanges are considered accurately in the suggested formulae. eel load is another kind of patch load rarely touched in the literature. This paper suggests a simple model to determine the bearing stresses on the top edge of the web plates in I-girders where the effect of the crane rail rigidity is considered. Based on this model, the buckling of the web plate is analyzed and formulae with excellent accuracy are suggested to predict the buckling load.