Elastic Buckling of Prismatic Web Plate under Shear with Simply-Supported Boundary Conditions

This study aims to investigate the local elastic buckling behavior of simply-supported prismatic web plates under pure shear loading. Comprehensive finite element analysis is conducted to analyze the effects of various geometric parameters, such as tapering ratio, aspect ratio, and web slenderness, on the local elastic buckling behavior with simply-supported boundary conditions. An eigenvalue analysis is conducted to determine web plates’ natural frequencies and corresponding shape modes with varying geometric parameters. Particular attention is given to the effect of the slenderness ratio, since current formulas do not consider the impact of the slenderness ratio on the elastic shear buckling coefficient. A sensitivity analysis is conducted to examine the importance of the web slenderness ratio for estimating the critical buckling coefficient of a prismatic plate under pure shear loading. Finally, a formula of the elastic local critical buckling coefficient for a simply-supported prismatic web considering the web slenderness effect is proposed, which can be used in international codes.