Stiffener

Stiffeners are secondary plates or sections which are attached to beam webs or flanges to stiffen them against out of plane deformations.

Almost all main bridge beams will have stiffeners. However, most will only have transverse web stiffeners, i.e. vertical stiffeners attached to the web. Deep beams sometimes also have longitudinal web stiffeners. Flange stiffeners may be used on large span box girder bridges but are unlikely to be encountered elsewhere.