Strength and behaviour of reinforced double-coped beams against local web buckling

Double-coped beams are usually employed to avoid spatial interference when similar elevations of both the top and bottom flanges of the connected beams are required. Due to the removal of the flange parts, the load resistance can be significantly compromised. This paper discusses the effectiveness of various reinforcing strategies aiming to increase the load resistance of newly designed double-coped beams or to upgrade the existing ones. A series of full-scale tests are conducted first, covering a set of reinforcement types and varying coping dimensions. Local web buckling is found to be the governing failure mode for the unreinforced specimens, and the presence of the considered stiffeners can effectively increase the load resistance. In particular, a pair of longitudinal stiffeners for the top cope edge is shown to completely mitigate the risk of local web buckling, and the final failure mode is tensile cracking at the bottom cope corner. The doubler plates, either full-depth or partial-depth, can delay the initiation of local web bucking, and as a result the load resistance is remarkably increased. The effects of the varying reinforcement types and coping dimensions on the utilisation efficiency of section capacities are discussed in detail. A finite element study is subsequently conducted to enable further understanding of key structural characteristics and to help explain some test phenomena. Preliminary design comments and recommendations are finally proposed based on the exiting test and numerical data.