Abstract
Field inspections and surveys highlighted that the environmental exposure conditions induce the irregular and non-uniform corrosion damages on steel plate girder ends. These irregular damage configurations play a vital role in computing the load carrying capacity and buckling pattern. In this study, two simulation techniques, i.e., shell elements and shell-solid coupling elements, were formulated to validate the experimental results and to assess the ultimate load carrying capacity using a powerful finite element (FE) based software. The geometric and structural imperfections were also incorporated in FE analysis to achieve the accurate results. The numerical study was extended by considering the various damage heights on bearing stiffener up to 100 mm. The study revealed that for a very small local corrosion at bearing stiffener, the damage shape and configuration is very important to grasp the actual buckling mode and the ultimate bearing capacity of plate girder.