Rules for curved steel panels: Design guidelines, examples and background documentation

The recently completed European research program OUTBURST – Optimal and aesthetic design of curved steel bridges (RFCS Nº 709782), where the authors of this report were involved, significantly supported the development of new design rules for curved steel plates. In the frame of this research, several individual curved panels and two bridge prototypes were tested. Physical and geometrical numerical nonlinear analysis were performed to recalculate the tests and validate numerical models. The results of the nonlinear analysis were used in numerical parametric studies.

New buckling coefficients and reduction factors for steel structures with cross-sections using stiffened curved panels under uniform compression and pure shear were developed based on the existing design rules for steel flat plated structures using the effective width method, specified in EN 1993-1-5. As part of a series of background documents supporting the implementation of Eurocode 3, this ECCS report summarizes the recent research work done in the field of curved steel plated structures. This report covers the following topics: i) the rules and their background, |ii) their reliability assessment, iii) explanations on how to use them, and iv) their application in a key example.