Strength evaluation of deteriorated girder ends. II: Numerical study on corroded I-beams

• Published in: Thin-walled structures 2021-02, Vol.159, p.107216, Article 107216
• Main Authors: Tzortzinis, Georgios, Knickle, Brendan T., Bardow, Alexander, Breña, Sergio F., Gerasimidis, Simos
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aging infrastructures; Beam end corrosion; Bearing load; Buckling; Crippling; Steel bridges
• ISSN: 0263-8231; 1879-3223
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tws.2020.107216

Corrosion is one of the main aspects for structural deficiency of highway bridges. Steel girders are prone to deterioration development at the support area, where malfunctioning expansion joints allow leaking water to penetrate into the superstructure level. The present study is the second part of a companion set of papers, and aims to numerically address the evaluation of un-stiffened I-beams with corroded ends. A girder level finite element model based on experimental data presented in the first of the two papers and able to capture the end failure is developed and employed through a parametric analysis to explore the impact of the initial web imperfection, the geometry configuration and the corrosion characteristics to the residual bearing capacity. Finally, empirical equations are provided for bearing strength assessment of rolled girders with corroded webs above end supports. The efficiency of the proposed methodology is experimentally and numerically validated, providing overly improved predicted failure loads compared to the current provisions. •More than 2000 corrosion scenarios are numerically analyzed.•The effect of corrosion height and length to bearing capacity is identified.•New provisions for capacity estimation of corroded steel girders are proposed.•The provisions account for three different levels of the web's out of plumbness.