Parametric Study of Girders with Sinusoidal Corrugated Web

Recently, steel girders with sinusoidal corrugations have become increasingly popular compared to those with traditional flat webs. This paper presents the second part of the research on the application of corrugated plates with different sinusoidal profiles as webs in girders. Parametric studies have been carried out in both linear and nonlinear domains, based on a representative numerical model developed and validated by experimental results. The research focused on the influence of the sinusoidal shape of the web on the shear capacity of the girders and the ultimate failure mode. The analyses were carried out using Abaqus software. Based on the results of the numerical analyses, it was concluded that increasing the wavelength of the sinusoidal wave decreases the ultimate shear capacity of the girders. This parameter also influences the failure mode. The results show that the wave amplitude has a small effect on the critical capacity. However, the amplitude influences the increase in the post-critical load and the size of the plastic zones located in the webs during the final phase of failure. With regard to the geometric parameters of the web, it was found that increasing the web thickness significantly improves the performance of the girders, while the web height has a negligible effect. It was also shown that the design guidelines in Eurocode 3 are very conservative in terms of estimating the shear buckling capacity of beams with sinusoidal corrugated webs and significantly underestimate the values.