ABSTRACT
Members designed to primarily carry bending or flexural forces are typically found in steel railway superstructures such as girders, beams, floor beams, and stringers. These beams and girder members experience normal tensile, normal compressive and shear stresses, and are designed considering strength, serviceability, and fatigue limit states. Steel girders, beams, floor beams, and stringers are designed as noncomposite flexural members. Elastic strains in beams and girders with at least one axis of symmetry that undergoes bending with small deformations, and where plane sections through the beam longitudinal axis remain plane, will have a linear distribution. Shear stresses exist in beams and girders due to the change in bending stresses at adjacent sections. Solid rectangular sections are typically not used for steel superstructure members. Biaxial bending is not generally a concern for ordinary steel railway longitudinal beams and girders. Preliminary dimensions may be needed for estimating weight and cost, and assessing site geometry constraints for erection.
