An analytical method to determine the ultimate shear strength of continuous steel plate girders

This study presents a straightforward method for predicting the ultimate shear capacity of Continuous Steel Plate Girders (CSPG); an accurate solution is obtained by incorporating the moment/shear ratio into an equilibrium equation originally designed for Single-span Steel Plate Girders (SSPG). A detailed three-dimensional finite element model was developed to effectively capture the geometric and material nonlinearities characteristic of plate girders. This model exhibits high precision and is particularly useful in the early design phases of CSPG. A parametric analysis reveals that the ultimate shear strength of CSPG decreases almost linearly as the moment/shear ratio increases. The analytical results were compared with finite element outcomes and existing experimental data to validate the proposed method, showing a strong agreement. This consistency underscores the method’s reliability and suitability for practical design applications.