Behaviour of thin-walled curved steel plates under generalised in-plane stresses: A review

Cylindrically curved plates are increasingly used in steel construction. In particular, there is a clear trend for their use in box-girder steel bridges with curved bottom flanges. However, there is a gap in standards dealing accurately with these types of structural elements under several arrangements of loadings and boundary conditions. This paper provides a state-of-the-art on the stability behaviour and design of cylindrically curved panels under generalised in-plane loading. A detailed review of the behaviour of curved panels subject to uniaxial compressive stresses, circumferential stresses, shear stresses and combined in-plane compressive stresses is presented, followed by a comparison of the design provisions of DNV and DNVGL standards with FEM numerical results obtained by the authors.