Elasto-plastic Large Deflection Analysis of End Support Diaphragms in Skew Steel Box Girders

摘要

Several studies on support diaphragms of steel box girders have been completed and some results of these studies have been incorporated into design rules. Almost all, however, assume support diaphragms placed orthogonally to the girder. Few studies have been done on skew bridge girder configurations, a number of which have recently been constructed. This paper reports on an elasto-plastic large deflection analysis of support diaphragms placed askew to the main girder axis and describes the behavior and strength of diaphragms under such conditions. The analysis was done on analytical models of steel box girders with two support diaphragms, with angle of diaphragm skew as a parameter. Results show that skew causes local out-of-plane deformation in a support diaphragm, which does not appear in an unskewed support diaphragm and which drastically reduces diaphragm strength.