Ultimate torsional strength of cracked stiffened box girders with a large deck opening

Abstract

The present paper studies the ultimate torsional strength of stiffened box girders with large deck opening due to the influence of cracks. Three types of hull girders with different spans are provided for comparison. Potential parameters which may have effects on the torsional strength including the mesh refinement, initial deflection, material strain hardening, geometric properties of crack and stiffener are discussed. Two new concepts that play an significant role in the ultimate strength research of damaged box girders are introduced, one of which is the effective residual section (ERS), the other is the initial damage of the failure zone (IDFZ) for intact structures. New simple formulas for predicting the residual ultimate torsional strength of cracked stiffened box girders are derived on the basis of the two new concepts.

Keywords

• Stiffened box girders
• Residual ultimate strength
• Initial damage
• Nonlinear FEM