Investigation on shear buckling of steel welded I‐section beams with reinforced web openings

Plate girders with I‐section frequently require large web openings to accommodate ducts and pipes in buildings and bridges. It is known that the critical load equivalent to an unperforated plate can be achieved by an appropriate reinforcement of the web opening. The majority of the investigations on thin‐walled webs with web opening under shear loading has been focused on web slendernesses ranging between 200 to 360. Three tests on plate girders with a web slenderness of 416 are presented that contain web openings. The effect of an all‐around reinforcement (hollow section) of the web opening is studied in three‐point bending tests. The tests are calculated with finite elements accounting for imperfections that had been measured before testing. A parametric study is performed to evaluate different types of reinforcements for high web slendernesses.