Ultimate load behaviour of webs in steel-concrete composite plate girders.

The paper is concerned with the tension field action in webs of steel-concrete composite plate girders. A three-dimensional finite element model has been used to carry out nonlinear analyses on composite plate girders. The results obtained from the finite element analyses are compared with those from experiments. It is observed from the comparative study that the proposed nonlinear finite element model is capable of predicting the ultimate load behaviour of steel-concrete composite plate girders to an acceptable accuracy. Results are presented to explain the development of the tension field action in the webs and to illustrate a measure of the contribution by the concrete slab acting compositely with the girder to the changes in tension field compared to a plain steel girder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]