Local buckling of bolted steel plates with different stiffener configuration

• The unilateral buckling behaviour of the steel plates in BSP beams was studied.
• The restraint effect of different stiffener configuration was compared.
• The test results can provide benchmark data for further studies.
• Satisfactory agreement was found between the numerical and experimental results.

Local buckling may occur on the compressive edge of steel plates in bolted side-plated (BSP) beams, which usually leads to premature failure analogous to over-reinforced concrete beams. This paper presents the results of an experimental study of eight local buckling test specimens. The plate thickness, the bolt spacing, the configuration of longitudinal and transverse stiffeners is varied to investigate their influence on the overall buckling resisting performance of the bolted steel plates. Significant enhancement in term of both the buckling strength and deformability is observed as the increasing of the plate thickness and the decreasing of the bolt spacing. Further improvement is found when the longitudinal stiffeners of different sectional size are employed. However, the additional transverse stiffeners impose no beneficial effect to the overall buckling performance. The test results can provide benchmark data for further theoretical and numerical studies. A previous finite element analysis is also introduced and great compliance is found between the experimental and numerical results.