Coped steel beams have been commonly adopted in steel frame structure construction, but the existence of coped regions severely limits the ultimate load carrying capacity and will even lead to unfavorable failure modes. This paper aims to study the reinforcing strategies of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) plates for coped steel beams against local web buckling. A total of four single coped steel beams with and without reinforced CFRP plates were fabricated and experimentally tested under different reinforcing strategies. Typical failure modes, the influence of CFRP plate layers, and pasting inclination angles were investigated and discussed. It has been found that the CFRP plate was efficient in improving ultimate load carrying capacities and prohibiting local web buckling of coped beams. The reinforcing effect was more prominent with more layers of CFRP plates, and CFRP plates with inclined pasting angles could also provide higher post-peak ductility compared to horizontal pasting. A finite element model was also established and validated against the experimental results. A subsequent parametric analysis was conducted to quantitively characterize the influence of various reinforcing strategies. The simplified calculation model was proposed based on the experimental and simulation results, which is hoped to provide further insights into the design of singled coped beams in practical engineering.

The rounded corners have significant influences on the buckling processes and carrying capacity of thin-walled steel structures. This paper was intended to investigate the influences of rounded corners on the performance of single-coped beam with slender web. The mechanical behaviours of two typical single-coped beams with different coped depths were experimentally investigated first. The finite element (FE) model was proposed and the accuracy was verified by comparing it with the experimental results. Based on the proposed FE model, the influences of different radius for rounded corners (R_c) were investigated. It was concluded that the application of rounded corners has great impacts on the failure modes and buckling processes of single-coped beams. It was also found that the energy-dissipating capacity as well as load carrying capacity increased significantly with the application of round corners, especially for single-coped beam with deep coped depth. The round corner index, which considered the influences of both rounded corner and coped depth, was proposed via fitting with the simulational results. A typical design example considering the round corner index was also provided and a more accurate result was achieved.

The steel coped beams are commonly seen in steel structures since slotting and coping are inevitable for the fitting of steel beams. The steel coped beams with slender web, however, are prone to local web buckling, which results in decreased load carrying capacity and catastrophic failure modes. This paper is intended to investigate the feasibility of reinforcing single-coped beam with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) plate. Totally five single-coped steel beams with or without CFRP plate reinforcement were tested. The failure processes and influences of different parameters were discussed and compared. It was found that the application of CFRP plate is effective to prohibit the development of buckling line. Thus, the load carrying capacity of CFRP reinforced single-coped beam could be three times higher than its control group. A novel finite element (FE) model was proposed and verified with experimental results. Based on the FE model, the failure mechanisms of CFRP reinforced single-coped beam were investigated. The parameter analysis was also conducted to acquire the optimal size of the CFRP plate considering its reinforcement effects. Based on both experimental and simulational results, the simplified design method of CFRP reinforced single-coped beam was also proposed.