Experimental load-carrying capacity evaluation of thermal prestressed H beam with steel brackets

To improve the load-carrying capacity of steel structures there are mainly two methods of using cover-plate which are the preflex method and multi-stepwise thermal prestressing method. However a prestress applied to the top flange of H beam is less than the bottom flange because these two methods have small eccentricity. It is necessary to develop an advanced feature of prestressing method which efficiently increases load-carrying capacity and prestressing efficiency. Therefore this study proposes a cover-plate prestressing method with increased sectional stiffness and prestressing efficiency, called multi-stepwise thermal prestressing with steel brackets. To evaluate the prestressing efficiency and load-carrying capacity of the proposed method, prestressing application tests and static loading tests were conducted on three H beams. The multi-stepwise thermal prestressing method with the steel brackets had higher displacement induced to the H beam and higher tensile stress in the top flange than in a case without the steel brackets. Also, when prestress is applied, the tensile stress in the cover-plate significantly decreased with the installation of the steel brackets. The static loading tests showed that the installation of the brackets increased the stiffness, the yield load, and ultimate load of the structure, compared with an unreinforced girder, which meant higher load-carrying capacity than a conventional thermal prestressed structure without brackets.