A study of continuous stem girder systems

A new beam system comprising two cantilever stems and an interspan composite beam has<br />been developed and its design philosophy is described in this paper. The system provides the equivalent<br />of a semi-continuous beam without the requirement to calculate the moment rotation capacity of the<br />beam-to-column connection. The economy of braced frames using the system has been investigated and<br />compared with simple, continuous or semi-rigid systems. It is shown that the costs of the proposed system<br />are similar to the semi-rigid system and cheaper than both the simply supported and rigid beam systems.<br />Two tests have been carried out on 6 meter span beams, which also incorporated an asymmetric flange<br />steel section. The behaviour of the system is presented and the test results are compared with those<br />obtained from the theory.