Comparative study of effect of web openings on the strength capacities of steel beam with trapezoidally corrugated web

Abstract

In steel I beams the corrugated webs are sometimes used as an alternative to plain web in many steel construction. The idea behind this concept is an increase in the shear capacity of steel beams without providing the transverse stiffeners. The recent development in steel construction is the used of web openings for the utilization of various technical utilities in web. This paper presents an extensive parametric study on the steel beam with corrugated web having openings in the web. The objective of the present study is to observe the structural performance of this special type of beam towards the strength capacities. In the parametric study 60 models of steel beams with trapezoidally corrugated web with opening has been analyzed by finite element analysis using ANSYS v12. The variables in the present study are angle of corrugation, thickness of web and diameter of opening. The angle of corrugation, web thickness and diameter of web openings considered in the study are 0°, 30°, 45° and 3 mm, 4 mm, 5 mm and 0.5, 0.6, 0.75 times the overall depth of beam, respectively. The parametric study shows that lesser the angle of web corrugation, the more increase in the load carrying capacity is obtained. Ultimate strength capacity of 30° corrugated web beam with different diameter of opening such as 0.5 D, 0.6 D, and 0.75 D is found to be 15.27%, 14.83%, 9.72%, which is more than the beam with plain web. The height to thickness (h/tw) ratio considered in the study are 30, 37.5, 40, 50, and 66.67, respectively. The height to thickness (h/tw) ratio is found to be the main parameter influencing the buckling behaviour of steel beam with corrugated web.