Shear Strength of End Panels in Steel Plate Girders

Plate girders, usually characterized by having large depth-to-web thickness ratios, have been widely used for long-span applications in bridges and buildings. US design provisions (AISC specifications for building design and AASHTO specifications for bridge design) permit the strength contribution from tension-field action after web buckling in calculating the design shear strength of interior panels, but not exterior panels. Testing of four large-size steel plate girders demonstrated a much higher shear resistance of end panels than those predicted by code provisions. Based on the failure mode observed from both testing and finite element simulation, an analytical model was developed to simulate the collapse mechanism. Plastic analysis was used to derive a shear strength equation. This equation, similar in format to that used in current design codes for interior panels, includes a parameter βv to account for the contribution of partial tension-field action.