Shear buckling and stress distribution in trapezoidal web corrugated steel beams: Fid-Bau Portal

Shear buckling and stress distribution in trapezoidal web corrugated steel beams

Leblouba, Moussa / Junaid, M. Talha / Barakat, Samer / Altoubat, Salah / Maalej, Mohamed

AbstractDue to their lightweight and superior load carrying capacity, corrugated web steel beams (CWSBs) have gained popularity in the last few decades. CWSBs are known to fail at much higher loads compared to stiffened flat web beams. To understand their shear response, a series of three-point load tests were performed on five shear-critical trapezoidal corrugated web beams. The test results confirmed the existence of the three shear buckling modes of failure: local, global, and interactive. In addition, all tested beams were observed to have a residual strength that is about half of their ultimate load carrying capacity regardless of the shear buckling mode. Results of the nonlinear finite element analysis showed that the shear stress is at its maximum and uniformly distributed throughout the web until buckling, afterwards, it decreases and its distribution is uneven while the entire resistance is provided by the increased tensile stress. Furthermore, stocky corrugated webs were shown to reach shear yield strength. Comparison between existing analytical models for the estimation of shear strength against test data showed that EN-1993-1-5 is accurate and conservative enough for an economic design.

Highlights•A series of stocky, shear-critical corrugated web steel beams were tested until failure.•The residual strength is estimated to be half of the ultimate load and is not influenced by the mode of shear buckling.•Initial imperfection with the 1st eigenmode shape and magnitude equal to the web thickness are sufficient for accurate NLFEA.•The shear stress is evenly distributed in the web until buckling takes place.•Previous formulas for the estimation of shear strength are compared against current and existing experimental results.