Shear Behavior of Corrugated Steel Girders
Summary
Corrugated steel girders employ a folded web plate—typically sinusoidal or trapezoidal—to enhance buckling resistance under shear loading without adding transverse stiffeners. The corrugation geometry introduces an “accordion effect” that delays web buckling and promotes a higher shear capacity compared to flat webs of equivalent thickness. Under increasing transverse shear, the web initially behaves elastically until yielding initiates in the folds, followed by local or global buckling modes that may interact with flange distortion. Composite action with concrete slabs further alters stress trajectories by bracing flanges and shifting the onset of critical stresses. Analytical models and finite element studies reveal that global buckling across multiple corrugation folds is the predominant failure mode, while local buckling can govern in slender-fold configurations. Shear lag between flanges and webs influences deflection profiles, particularly in longer spans or box-type sections. Advances in predictive algorithms—including machine learning and enhanced regression techniques—have yielded rapid design tools with high accuracy. Practical applications span railway and highway bridges, long-span floor systems and lightweight building frames, where weight savings and material efficiency offer both economic and environmental benefits.
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Shear Behavior of Corrugated Steel Girders publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in shear behavior of corrugated steel girders across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Corrugated web: A steel plate folded into a sinusoidal or trapezoidal profile to increase buckling resistance under shear.
Shear capacity: The maximum transverse shear force a girder’s web can sustain without yielding or buckling.
Global buckling: A failure mode in which multiple corrugation folds deform simultaneously under shear.
Shear lag: Uneven shear stress distribution between flange and web due to delayed load transfer.
Lateral-torsional buckling: Instability involving combined lateral displacement and twisting of a beam under bending.
References
- Optimizing Gene Expression Programming to Predict Shear Capacity in Corrugated Web Steel Beams. Civil Engineering Journal (2024).
- Lateral-torsional buckling strength of corrugated web girders – Experimental study. Structures (2022).
- Finite Element Analysis of the Stability of a Sinusoidal Web in Steel and Composite Steel-Concrete Girders. Materials (2020).
- Computation of Deflections for PC Box Girder Bridges with Corrugated Steel Webs considering the Effects of Shear Lag and Shear Deformation. Mathematical Problems in Engineering (2020).
- Determining the Shear Capacity of Steel Beams with Corrugated Webs by Using Optimised Regression Learner Techniques. Materials (2021).
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