Beam bracing is applied to prevent the relative displacement of the top and bottom flanges or to effectively control the twisting of the section, and the lateral stability of the beams are provided by lateral bracing, torsional bracing or a combination of both. Modular steel I-girders are laterally interconnected by torsional bracings that are installed to increase the resistance to lateral torsional buckling. In this paper, numerical parametric study was carried out by varying the crossbeam web height to examine the effects of the web torsional stiffness. Three-dimensional finite-element analysis using the commercial finite element software ABAQUS was obtained for the parametric numerical analyses of a series of feasible two-girder models, and the failure mode, lateral-torsional buckling strength and the moment-displacement behavior of the main girders was determined.

Recent studies have revealed that plates stiffened by closed-section ribs can be designed to have greater strength. Thus, this study is about the increasing effect on local plate buckling strength of isotropic plates when longitudinally stiffened with closed-section ribs, which is mainly due to the rotational restraint of the closed-section ribs. The effects on buckling strengths of the stiffened plates are examined by numerical analyses. Three-dimensional finite element models were obtained using a general structural analysis program ABAQUS and a series of eigenvalue analyses were conducted. Through this study, the increasing effect on the local buckling strength due to the rotational stiffness is numerically verified. From the parametric studies, there is an obvious tendency that the local buckling strength of the stiffened plate would converge to the buckling strength of plate with fixed boundary condition. The findings of this study would contribute in improving the optimum design of longitudinally stiffened isotropic plates.