Response to discussion by O. Bedair of "Imperfections in steel girder webs with and without perforations under patch loading"

A team of researchers presented their views on the discussion by O. Bedair regarding imperfections in steel girder webs with and without perforations under patch loading. The load was applied at the lower flange to simulate the actual and common situation sting in the longitudinal launching of steel bridges. The girder where initial imperfections were detected and successively implemented in the numerical analysis, was a part of a beam to be placed near midspan that was subjected to inversion of the bending moment and localized load at the lower flange when it came in contact with the sliding device on the pier, during launching. The common of neglecting the contribution of upper and lower flanges and vertical stiffeners or determining the linear buckling load of an open-section girder was adopted.