Behavior of welded girders with corrugated webs.

摘要

In an effort to decrease the weight of structural steel girders the use of thin webs has been the traditional avenue of pursuit. There comes a point at which the web becomes too thin, at such a point the addition of welded stiffeners has been the answer. The use of welded stiffeners may overcome the cost advantage of using thin webs and cause problems when the girders are subjected to repeated loading, hence, a different answer has been sought. Building on previous research and experimental work done by others on the use of corrugated webs, this thesis presents the results of additional tests performed by the author, as well as a theoretical approach to calculate the capacity in bending and shear of girders with corrugated webs.The first series of tests performed were to study the behavior of welded plate girders with thin corrugated webs loaded under uniform shear. Various aspect ratios, corrugation configurations and thicknesses were used. The results of these tests were then compared to results obtained from other experimental work and theoretical analysis.The second series of tests performed were to study the behavior of welded plate girders with thin corrugated webs loaded under uniform moment. Again multiple corrugation configurations and thicknesses were employed. As no existing experimental data exists for this type of loading, a new method to calculate the girders capacity was derived.Selected results from the two series of tests were then modeled using a linear finite element analysis program. The correlation between the actual tests and the models developed was quite good with respect to the shear tests. The flexural test model was adequate, but did not demonstrate the same degree of agreement as was seen in the shear tests.In total there were 42 shear tests and 13 flexural tests completed, of which 12 were analyzed using finite element analysis. These tests showed very good correlation to existing data, when available, but more studies of the behavior of thin corrugated webs are required, especially when subjected to moment, and combinations of moment and shear.