BEHAVIOUR OF STUB-GIRDER FLOORING SYSTEMS

Abstract

The thesis deals with the behaviour of the stub-girder flooring systems under combined bending and shear and the results obtained from analytical and experimental investigations are reported herein. Two different methods namely Vierendeel girder method and finite element method are presented to predict the ultimate strength of stub-girders. In the former method, the stub-girder is modeled as a Vierendeel girder. Based on an assumed collapse mechanism with four plastic hinges at the corners of the opening, a simple explicit expression for estimating the ultimate load is derived. The latter method involves the use of finite element software package ABAQUS to carry out nonlinear analyses on idealized two-dimensional models of stub-girders. Based on comparison studies with experimental results, the computed results show that the finite element method if more reliable for predicting the ultimate strength of stub-girders when compared to the Vierendeel girder method.