Investigation of the accordion effect of corrugated steel beams

Abstract

Investigation of the accordion effect of corrugated steel beams

Trifunovich I.Z., Rybakova L.Y.

Incoming article date: 28.12.2020

Assessment of flexural strength is important in the design of steel beams. In this paper, analytical studies have been carried out to determine the flexural strength of conventional steel I-beams and steel corrugated beams. An experimental program was analyzed for four beams with a simple support and different web configurations (flat or corrugated) and different flange thicknesses (thin or thick). In the course of experimental work, the effect of a decrease in the bending capacity of a beam due to a corrugated web was determined. To simulate the tested samples and check the results of the experimental part of the work, a nonlinear finite element technique was used. After receiving the results, the following conclusions were made. First, the bending capacity of the corrugated steel beam is less than that of the conventional steel I-beam, in the range of 10 to 20%. Second, the flexure of the flat-web steel beam showed local buckling of the flange followed by local buckling of the web, in contrast to the steel girder with a corrugated web, which previously showed only local buckling of the flange. And third, the finite element model can simulate the behavior of steel beams, especially in the elastic stage, with an acceptable degree of accuracy.

Keywords: steel beam design, flexural strength, corrugated web, flange thickness, bending capacity, finite element technique, web configuration