Elastic buckling of longitudinally stiffened patch loaded plate girders using factorial design

• Linear buckling analysis of longitudinally stiffened plate girders is investigated.
• The investigation is performed through finite element analysis.
• Factorial design analysis is used to investigate the influence of several geometric parameters.
• A second order model is used to predict the buckling coefficients.
• A significant improvement of the predicted values is found.

This paper is aimed at investigating the elastic buckling of longitudinally stiffened plate girder subjected to patch loading. At first, buckling coefficients are computed by means of linear buckling analysis using the finite element method. Thereafter, a first order factorial design is performed to weigh the geometrical parameters on the buckling coefficient. Finally, a second order model is obtained to predict the buckling coefficient for longitudinally stiffened plate girders. A significant improvement, within the range of geometric parameters investigated herein, is achieved when compared to similar formulae found in the literature.

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