Buckled flange after cambering

[davidfi]

I have a project in construction where I specified 3/4” of camber for a 44’ long W12x65 beam. The steel fabricator forgot to camber the beam and installed all of the stiffener plates (7 locations along its length). Then they cambered the beam.

They flange buckled locally at one location. A special inspector checked the beam and said that it appeared that they heated it and tried to hammer out the buckle. He said there was still about a 1/2” of deflection at the buckle.

Our thought is to have them replace the beam, but wanted to see if anyone had other thoughts.

Thanks!

 

[JoshPlumSE]

The damaged flange is on the tension side of the beam, right?

 

[davidfi]

Yes, the damaged flange is on the tension side.

 

[JoshPlumSE]

If that flange will always be in tension, then I'm not sure localized buckling / damage to that flange will subtract much from member capacity. As long as there isn't much concern about damage leading to premature tension fracture. Is there going to be any bolting or welding to the flange in this location?

Certainly you could calculate some kind of a Q factor to represent how much of the flange is still "effective" and then use that in a bending capacity calculation. That should be conservative.

 

[BAretired]

If the beam deflects to a horizontal position, the 1/2" buckling deflection disappears and the flange becomes 100% effective unless the hammering caused a kink in the flange. Hammering was not a good idea.

BA