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Incremental launching is one of the common steel bridge assembly methods used nowadays, its practical application consists in passing the bridge assembly through the launching shoes as well as over each support pile. In some cases, when plate girders are used, it is usual to find longitudinal stiffeners reinforcement in order to prevent web local buckling produced by the vertical reaction acting in the support pile. A considerable number of studies have focused on evaluating the impact of a single stiffener on the resistance of plate girder subjected to patch loading. However, the effect of multiple longitudinal stiffened plate girders subjected to lengthy compressive load has received little attention. Therefore, this paper aims at studying the influence of load bearing length on the ultimate strength of multiple longitudinally stiffened webs subjected to compressive loads. Patch loading resistance is numerically calculated using a previously validated nonlinear finite element analysis. Subsequently, a parametrical study is conducted to investigate the effect of the aforementioned load length and the relative position and size of the stiffeners on the ultimate strength, Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

In the construction of traditional composite bridges whose structure consists of plate girders, the concrete slabs of the decks are often casted before launching. These thin-walled webs are occasionally reinforced with longitudinal stiffeners to increase bending and shear strengths, and for bridges erected by incremental launching, these stiffeners also provide an enhancement for patch loading resistance. Experimental works have shown that ultimate resistance to patch loading is highly dependent on the size, relative position and shape of the longitudinal stiffener. Nonetheless, a comparison between those three factors should be carried out in order to establish the optimum configuration of longitudinal stiffening for webs under compressive forces. Hence, this study attempts to compare the increase of ultimate strength of a slender I-girder subjected to concentrated load using open and closed section types of stiffeners, evaluating three different stiffeners configurations: i) a single open section stiffener, ii) multiple open section stiffeners, and iii) a single closed section stiffener. The nonlinear computations were performed using a finite element analysis parametric model, where the relative position and size of the stiffeners are varied to cover a wide range of geometries., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)