Moment redistribution of continuous composite I-girder with high strength steel

Abstract

The continuous composite I-girder should have a sufficient rotation capacity (or ductility) to redistribute the negative bending moment into an adjacent positive bending moment region. However, it is generally known that the ductility of the high strength steel is smaller than that of conventional steel, and application of high strength steel can cause ductility problems in a negative moment region of the I-girder. In this study, moment redistribution of the continuous composite I-girder with high strength steel was studied, where high strength steel with yield stress of 690 MPa was considered (the ultimate stress of the steel was 800 MPa). The available and required rotation capacity of the continuous composite I-girder with high strength steel was firstly derived based on the stress-strain curve of high strength steel and plastic analysis, respectively. A large scale test and a series of non-linear finite element analysis for the continuous composite I-girder with high strength steel were then conducted to examine the effectiveness of proposed models and to investigate the effect of high strength steel on the inelastic behavior of the negative bending moment region of the continuous composite I-girder with high strength steel. Finally, it can be found that the proposed equations provided good estimation of the requited and available rotation capacity of the continuous composite I-girder with high strength steel.