Design aspects of steel I-girders with corrugated steel webs

Abstract

Corrugated web girders represent a new structural system emerged in the past two decades. The girder’s flanges provide the flexural strength of the girder with no contribution from the corrugated web which provides the girder’s shear capacity. Failure of the web occurs by steel yielding, web buckling or interactively between them. Lateral torsion and local flange buckling of corrugated web girders represent another two possible failure criteria. Here, the work previously performed by the author on corrugated web girders was compiled and presented in a comprehensive format. The starting point is the shear behaviour of the corrugated webs which is investigated focusing on the failure modes affecting the web design. An interaction equation that considers web buckling and yielding is proposed. Numerical analyses are performed to investigate the buckling modes of the corrugated web, verify the validity of the proposed equation and explore the post-buckling strength of corrugated web girders. The numerical model is extended to determine the critical moment causing lateral instability for corrugated web girders. The applicability of the critical moment design equations, currently used for plane web girders, to corrugated web girders is examined. The numerical model is then used to scrutinize the local buckling behaviour of the compression flange. The applicability of the currently used limiting values for the flange outstand-to-thickness ratios to corrugated web girders is investigated.