The Reinforcement of Steel Columns

There may be a need for a steel column to have load-
carrying capacity additional to that planned in the original
design. The column may be already in place and the
reinforcement may need to be carried out under load or with
the load temporarily relieved.
Columns may be reinforced by the addition of material in
the form of cover plates, or by changing the residual stress
distribution to a more favorable one, or by a method that
combines both of these effects. The effect of the addition of
material is obvious, and warrants no further consideration
here. This paper is concerned with those cases where welding
is used for the reinforcement, either alone or with cover
plates. The discussion is limited to rolled wide-flange shapes
as the shapes to be reinforced, and the loads are restricted to
static loads.
Reinforcement is usually understood to be the welding of
cover plates to the flange of the shape (Fig. 1). Figure 2
indicates the reinforcement of a shape by the laying of a weld
bead on the flange tip, which may be the only option
available in some conditions and which improves column
strength by changing the residual stress distribution.
Download File