Post-buckling shear capacity of the corroded end panels of H-shaped steel beams

Abstract

The shear capacity of steel beams can be affected by corrosion when the effective thickness is reduced. However, the contribution to shear capacity of beams with corroded steel web from support stiffener and flange has not been quantified until now. Thus, this work aims to reveal the changing rules of the shear capacity of randomly corroded steel beam while considering the nonlinear buckling behavior of the corroded web. The established numerical model is first validated through code-based semi analytical results. The contribution from support stiffener and flange are then investigated in detail. The influences of corrosion location, corroded thickness, thickness of support stiffener or flange, corrosion size, and corrosion severity on the reduction of shear capacity are investigated. Both the constant and random corroded depths are considered. The results show that the shear capacity corresponding to local corrosion is lower than uniform corrosion. This is caused by the corrosion located at different positions, which can influence the shear capacity in varying degree. Furthermore, the diameter of the corrosion pit has no influence on residual shear capacity and can be taken as a constant value. The influence of corrosion parameters on reduction factor is also quantified. The conclusions derived in this work can be directly applied to steel beams under actual conditions.