Elastic Initial and Post-local Buckling of Profiled through Girders

An experiment investigating the elastic local buckling response of trough girders composed of thin profiled steel sheeting has been undertaken Beam tests were performed to promote initial local buckling in a region of constant moment in the elastic range of structural response. The results of the experiments were compared with an elastic complex semi-analytical finite strip method of analysis, and acceptable correlation was obtained. The post-local buckling behavior was monitored in the experiments, and this response showed good agreement with a nonlinear finite strip method developed elsewhere.