Shear buckling and design strength study of curved girders with corrugated steel webs

Owing to the curvature of curved girders with corrugated steel webs, the inner and outer corrugation angles of the webs are different. For the local buckling behaviour of such webs, under the influence of different parameters, cases of panel lengths ratios were analysed in detail. Results showed that the average value of local buckling coefficients of curved corrugated steel webs was higher than straight ones. Based on Lindner's and El-Metwally's interactive theories, interactive buckling formulas for different panel aspect ratios were given. Additionally, considering the difference between elastic and yielding synthetic indices of curved webs, a buckling design formula was proposed by means of unequal synthetic indices. The finite-element values of local and interactive buckling were designed reasonably, and design parameters were determined through a large amount of analytical data. When the slenderness ratio was less than 1·5, the proposed design curve was found to be better than other available curves. Finally, buckling modes of straight corrugated steel webs in previous experiments were effectively separated by the given judgement formulas of different buckling modes. The percentage of local buckling in the experimental data was found to be highest, which formed a degenerated model compared with the proposed design curve.