Behavior of corrugated web I-girders under in-plane loads

A theoretical formulation of the linear elastic in-plane and torsional behavior of corrugated web I-girders under in-plane loads is presented. A typical corrugated web steel I-girder consists of two steel flanges welded to a corrugated steel web. Under a set of simplifying assumptions, the equilibrium of an infinitesimal length of a corrugated web I-girder is studied, and the cross-sectional stresses and stress resultants due to primary bending moment and shear are deduced. The analysis shows that a corrugated web I-girder will twist out-of-plane simultaneously as it deflects in-plane under the action of in-plane loads. In the paper, the in-plane bending behavior is analyzed using conventional beam theory, whereas the out-of-plane torsional behavior is analyzed as a flange transverse bending problem. The results for a simply supported span subjected to a uniformly distributed load are presented. Finally, finite element analysis results are presented and compared to the theoretical results for validation.