Elastic local shear buckling of beams with sinusoidal corrugated webs

Abstract

Steel beams with corrugated webs are used in the construction industry to increase the shear capacity of the web without the need to weld stiffeners to the web. Most research in the past has focused on beams with trapezoidal corrugated webs with little research available for beams with sinusoidal corrugated webs. The Eurocode is the only standard with shear design rules for beams with trapezoidal and sinusoidal corrugated webs. However, the equation for the elastic local shear buckling stress for beams with sinusoidal corrugated webs shown in the Eurocode was derived for a specific girder geometry and it is uncertain whether this equation can be used for any general beam with sinusoidal corrugated webs. In this paper, a finite element analysis is described to compute the elastic local shear buckling stress for beams with sinusoidal corrugated webs. The finite element analysis was done by modelling the beam as a cantilever acted upon by an edge shear stress at the free end. The aim is to compare the elastic local shear buckling stress with that predicted by the Eurocode. Over 600 beams with different geometric parameters of the sinusoidal web were analysed to investigate the elastic local shear buckling behaviour. The results show that the Eurocode is unconservative for some beams with sinusoidal corrugated webs.