Stress distribution in the flanges of girders with corrugated webs: Fid-Bau Portal

Stress distribution in the flanges of girders with corrugated webs

Kövesdi, B. / Jáger, B. / Dunai, L.

Abstract The corrugated steel plate is a widely used structural element in many fields of application because of its numerous favorable properties. Due to the web corrugation the normal and shear stress distribution in the flange and web plates are different from the stress distribution of the conventional I-girders under in-plane bending and shear. The focus of this paper is the analysis of the stress distribution in the flanges of the girders with corrugated webs. Due to the corrugated web an additional transverse bending moment arises in the flange, which results in an additional normal stress distribution what has an effect on the bending moment resistance. The additional transverse bending moment comes from the shear force in the corrugated web and its value depends on the geometry of the corrugation profile. The effect and the tendency of this transverse bending moment are analyzed in the current paper. Based on experimental background a numerical model is developed to analyze the stress distribution in the flanges. Tendency of the additional normal stresses are determined and based on the numerical results an enhanced design method is proposed to determine the transverse bending moment and the additional normal stresses.

Highlights ► The stress distribution in the flange of the girders with corrugated webs was investigated. ► Different design proposals from the literature are studied and compared. ► Stress distributions are analyzed under different loading and supporting conditions by numerical and experimental studies. ► The previous design methods are compared to the numerical calculations and an enhanced design method is proposed.