Effect of different parameters on lateral-torsional buckling behavior of I-girders with circular corrugated webs

Abstract

Abstract I-girders with circular corrugated webs are considered as a new fabrication technology. The corrugation of the web considerably increases the stiffness of the cross-section to resist shear forces and also increases the out-of-plane stiffness. However, investigations on the lateral-torsional buckling behavior of the circular corrugated web girders are still scarce. Therefore, the present study focuses on the lateral-torsional buckling performance of these types of girders. A numerical study is performed in order to simulate the inelastic lateral-torsional buckling behavior of the I-girders with the circular corrugated web using ABAQUS software. A parametric study is carried out taking into account both linear and non-linear buckling analyses, to investigate the effect of different geometrical parameters on the inelastic lateral-torsional buckling behavior using three different corrugated web profiles. The results indicate that increasing the corrugation depth, flange width, flange thickness, and web height increases the moment capacity of these girders. The results of the parametric study show that the moment capacity of the I-girders with the circular corrugated web is higher than those with flat web girders.

Keywords

• Circular corrugated web girders
• Finite element analysis
• Lateral-torsional buckling
• Moment capacity
• Numerical analysis
• Parametric study