Akshay Kumar (10/ICE/011)

Devyani Tewatia (10/ICE/019)

Kavita Verma (10/ICE/025)
Prateek Roshan (10/ICE/033)
PLATE GIRDER BRIDGES
27 April 14
A PRESENTATION
ON
Girder bridges
Flexure or bending between vertical supports is the main structural action in
this type.
Girder bridges may be either solid web girders or truss girders or box
girders.
Plate girder bridges are adopted for simply supported spans less than 50 m
and box girders for continuous spans upto 250 m.
Cross sections of a typical plate bridge is shown below:-
Figure: Plate girder bridge section
What is a plate girder bridge?

A plate girder bridge is a bridge supported by two or more plate
girders braced together to the required stiffness. The plate girders are
typically I-beams made up from separate structural steel plates which
are welded or, in older bridges, bolted or riveted together to form the
vertical web and horizontal flanges of the beam.
PLATE GIRDER BRIDGES

Plate girders became popular in the late 1800's, when they were used
in construction of railroad bridges.
The plates were joined together using angles and rivets to obtain plate
girders of desired size.
By 1950's welded plate girders replaced riveted and bolted plate
girders in developed world due to their better quality, aesthetics and
economy.
The use of plate girders rather than rolled beam sections for the two
main girders gives the designer freedom to select the most economical
girder for the structure.

ADVANTAGES OF USING STEEL FOR GIRDERS
Reduced dead loads.
More economic foundations.
Simpler erection procedures.
Shorter execution time.
Faster and easier rehabilitation.
Durability.
CLASSIFICATIONS OF PLATE GIRDER BRIDGES
There are three classifications under this grouping:-
These are deck type, through type or semi-through type.
DECK TYPE BRIDGES
It refer to those in which the road deck is carried on the top flange or on top of the
supporting girders.
The deck slab or sleeper may cantilever out to some extent beyond the extreme
longitudinal girder.
The bracing of the top flange or lateral
support of the top chord under compression
is also required.
Figure: Deck type
The semi-through bridge, has its deck midway and the deck load is
transmitted to the girder through the web of the girder.
The deck lies in between the top and the bottom of the main load carrying
members. The bracing of the top flange or top chord under compression is
not done and part of the load carrying system project above the floor level
In this also, the main girders are on the either side of the deck.


Figure: Semi-through type
In through type bridges, the decking is supported by the bottom flange
of the main supporting girders provided on either side .i.e. the carriageway
rests at the bottom level of the main load carrying members (girders).
In the through type plate girder bridge, the roadway or railway is placed at
the level of bottom flanges.

Figure: Through type
PLATE GIRDER BRIDGES

If large embankment fills are required in the approaches to the bridge,
in order to comply with the minimum head-room clearance required,
the half through bridge is more appropriate.
This arrangement is commonly used in railway bridges where the
maximum permissible approach gradient for the track is low.
In this case the restraint to lateral buckling of compression flange is
achieved by a moment resisting U-frame consisting of floor beam and
vertical stiffness, which are connected together with a moment
resisting joint.
PLATE GIRDER BRIDGES

Half through is adopted when the cost of additional embankment to
raise the rail level is high.
If the construction depth is not critical, then a deck-type bridge, is a
better solution, in which case the bracings provide restraint to
compression flange against lateral buckling.
PLATE GIRDER HIGHWAY BRIDGE

A plate girder highway bridge will consist of the deck slab
(normally of reinforced concrete) and stringers running
longitudinally and resting on transverse floor beams, which in
turn rest on the plate girders.

The photo above is the underside of a steel deck plate girder span. The steel girders
are nearly twice as tall as the concrete girders, but they also span longer distances
between piers.
PLATE GIRDER RAILWAY BRIDGE

In the case of a railway bridge, the plate girders carry the
wooden sleepers over which the steel rails are fastened.
The girder bridges will be braced laterally at the level of the top
flange and the bottom flange, besides cross bracings to resist the
lateral load due to wind.
The cross bracings consist of angles and are provided at the ends
and at intervals of about 5m.

Figure: Plate girder railway bridge
Initial design of main plate girder is generally based on experience or thumb
rules.
Such rules also give a good estimate of dead load of the bridge structure to be
designed.
For highway and railway bridges, indicative range of values for
various overall dimension of the main girders are given below:
Overall depth, D: L/18 D L/12 (Highway bridges)
D: L/10 D L/7 (Railway bridges
Flange width, 2b: D/4 2b D/3
Flange thickness, T: b/12 T b/5
Web thickness, t: t D/125
Here, L is the length between points of zero moment.

FATIGUE EFFECT

Under cyclic load, experienced by bridges, flaws in tension zone lead to
progressively increasing crack and finally failure
even though stresses are well within the static strength of the material. It may
be low cycle fatigue, due to stress ranges beyond yielding or high cycle fatigue,
at stresses below the elastic limit.
IS: 1024 gives the guide line for evaluating fatigue strength of welded details,
that may be used to evaluate the fatigue strength.
Stress concentration may lead to premature cracking near bracing stiffener and
shear connector welds. Proper detailing of connections is needed to favourably
increase design life of plate girders.
LATERAL BRACING FOR PLATE GIRDERS
Plate girders have a very low torsional stiffness and a very high ratio of major
axis to minor axis moment of inertia. Thus, when they bend about major axis,
they are very prone to lateral-torsional instability as shown in figure.




Adequate resistance to such instability has to be provided during
construction. In the completed structure, the compression flange is usually
stabilized by the deck.
Figure: Lateral torsional buckling
If the unrestrained flange is in compression, distortional buckling is a
possible mode of failure and such cases have to be adequately braced.
Thus, lateral bracings are a system of cross frames and bracings located in the
horizontal plane at the compression flange of the girder, in order to increase
lateral stability.
Figure: Distorsional buckling
BEARINGS
Bridge bearing is an element of superstructure which provides an
interface between the superstructure and substructure.
This interface is vital because superstructure undergoes dimensional
changes and deformations due to various factors which are listed as
follows:
Thermal expansion/contraction
Elastic deformation under live load
Seismic forces
Creep and shrinkage of concrete

Settlement of supports
Longitudinal forces - tractive/ breaking
Wind loads.
The bearings transmit the load received from the decking on to the
substructure and are provided for distribution of the load evenly over
the substructure material which may not have sufficient bearing
strength to bear the superstructure load directly.
These also allow for longitudinal movement of girders due to
longitudinal forces of moving loads and temperature variation.
BEARINGS
Figure: Typical Semi-through railway bridge
FABRICATION
OF
STEEL GIRDERS
Construction of composite welded steel plate girder type ROBs ** at Barnala
(Punjab) and Budhwala (Punjab) level crossing by the Indian railway in Ambala
division.

**ROBs:- The structure crossing the railway track and carrying road way above
is called a Road Over Bridge.
TESTING OF STEEL PLATE FOR FLAWS
Primarily necessary step
If internal flaw present in steel plate it can grow due to bending moment and
shear force.

DIGISCAN-322 ultrasonic testing
equipment used at
BARNALA (PUNJAB)
Ultrasonic Testing (UT) uses high
frequency sound energy to conduct
examinations and make measurements.
Ultrasonic inspection can be used for flaw
detection/evaluation,dimensional
measurements, material characterization.



Worker checking for flaws in Steel plate at site

Figure: Diagram showing how Testing equipment works and data appears on the screen.

CUTTING OF STEEL PLATE
This is a operation done at the site to get the desired shape of steel
plates being use in the construction of deferent components of the
structure. Oxy-fuel gas cutting is use for this purpose at site.
Oxy-fuel cutting are processes that use fuel gases and oxygen to
cut metals.
LPG is used as fuel gas at site for the cutting purpose.


Oxygen and LPG Gas cylinders at the site

PUG CUTTING MACHINE

Pug cutting machine is automated flame cutting machine which is used for cutting
of ferrous metal sheets and plates .
An aluminium track is designed over which the machine moves and the speed of
this machine can be adjusted according to the thickness of the cutting metals by
electronic control switch.

Pug cutting machine over aluminium track being used in Fabrications of 46m
span composite girders of Br. No 92-B at Barnala by Northern Railway.


Being small in size and light weight, the machine can be easily carried to
the worksite and placed directly track fixed on the on the plate to be
cut.
It cuts with rectangular and smooth surface with minimum wastage of
steel in cut width.
Figure: Finished surface after gas cutting

DRILLING OF HOLES
Prior to welding the plates into the girders required number of holes of
prescribed dimensions has been done at the site in the plates with the help
of drilling machines.
These driven holes will be use for connecting adjacent girder with help of
steel plates, bracing and gusset plate.
At the site drilling of has been done by two types of drilling machine:
Portable drilling machine.
Fixed drilling machine.



Portable type drilling machine have electromagnetic base.
Easy to move.
Generally Use for the drilling in web plate and splice plate.

Figure: Portable drilling machine use by a person for drilling holes in web plate
PORTABLE TYPE DRILLING MACHINE
Figure: Steel plate showing holes driven by portable drilling machine
FIXED TYPE DRILLING MACHINE
Use for drilling of holes into flange
plate and splice plate which is use
for connecting of adjacent girder.
Bottom part of the machine is fixed
over the base
The upper assembly can rotate over
the base and drilling part of the
machine can move with the help of
track attached to the upper part of
the machine.

Figure: Steel plates and girder
WELDING PROCEDURE
During the fabrication, welding of the girder has been done in the different
phase.
Fillet welding of 8mm unless specify.
Procedure is described in the following photographs shown below.
Placing of web plate over platform



Figure: Flange plate is being placed by the side of web plate


Welding of U-shaped plate to the web
and flange plate to keep flange
perpendicular to web

Tack welding


Welding of inclined road to keep web &
flange at perpendicular to each other
Hammering to remove the U-
shaped plate


Placing of temporary welded girder over inclined platform for welding with the
help of SAW tractor
STIFFENERS
Stiffeners are required where factored concentrated loads or reactions exceed the
factored compressive (vertical) resistance of the plate girder web.
Failure due to concentrated loads can be as local buckling of the web in the region
where it joins the flange, or overall buckling of the web throughout its depth

TRANSVERSE STIFFENERS
If a girder has insufficient strength (web local yielding or web crippling) to support
concentrated point loads then a pair of transverse stiffeners can be added to the
web to transfer the concentrated force to the web.


Transverse
stiffeners

BEARING STIFFENERS
Bearing stiffeners are placed over the end bearings of welded plate girders and
over the intermediate bearings of continuous welded plate girders.
They consist of two or more plates placed on both sides of the web.

Bearing
stiffners
SPLICE PLATE OR COVER PLATE
Splice plate or cover plates are used to join the web and flanges of plate
girder bridge. These are connected to the steel girders through bolts or
fasteners.
Bolts or fasteners are used because bolted joint is more flexible than
welded one.
If any bolt fails it can be easily replaced by another one without giving any
support.
If any girder fails then it can be replaced easily in bolted connection as
compared to the welded one.

Splice plate temporary welded to the flanges before drilling of holes