Ultimate Resistance of Stiffened Curved Plates with Trapezoidal Stiffeners under Uniaxial Compression

Abstract

The stability of stiffened plates has always been an important research issue in bridge engineering. The application of stiffened curved plates (SCPs) in the field of bridge engineering is gradually increasing, but the corresponding research needs to be more comprehensive. Guidelines have yet to be established in bridge design codes for the stability design of SCPs. To study the failure mode and ultimate resistance of SCPs with trapezoidal longitudinal stiffeners under uniaxial compression, six test specimens with a scale ratio of 1:2 were designed in this work, and static loading tests were conducted on three kinds of SCPs with different curvatures. The influence of curvature on the ultimate resistance and failure mode of SCPs was analyzed, and a calculation method for the ultimate resistance of SCPs was discussed. Results showed that the SCPs with trapezoidal longitudinal stiffeners have sufficient overall and local stability. The failure of the SCPs occurred locally in the subpanels between stiffeners, and the ultimate resistance of specimens with different bending radii was insignificantly different. The ultimate compressive resistance calculated following the effective section of the main plate was close to the test results. When the subpanels are locally buckled, the stiffened flat plate calculation method can be used to analyze the ultimate resistance of SCPs, and the calculated results deviate conservatively.