In-plane strength of steel arches with a sinusoidal corrugated web under a full-span uniform vertical load: Experimental and numerical investigations

• Experiments on in-plane strength of sinusoidal corrugated web arch are carried out.
• FE numerical models of the arches are validated by experimental results.
• In-plane strength design equations under FSUVL are proposed and validated by tests.

This paper reports experimental and numerical investigations used to develop a simple and accurate design method for the in-plane strength of circular steel I-section arches having a sinusoidal corrugated web under a uniform vertical load over the entire span. In deference to a flat web that can resist both shear and normal stresses, a sinusoidal corrugated web can resist only shear stresses, since its axial and bending stiffnesses are quite small. Tests are carried out to investigate the global in-plane elasto-plastic behaviour and strength of a circular steel I-section arch with a sinusoidal corrugated web under symmetric loading. A finite element model is also developed, validated by the test results, and then used to further investigate the global in-plane elasto-plastic behaviour and strength of the steel arches. Based on the test and finite element results, a design equation for predicting the global in-plane strength of circular steel I-section arches with a sinusoidal corrugated web subjected to a uniform vertical load over the entire span is proposed. It is found from the finite element results that in addition to an in-plane global failure mode, a circular steel I-section arch with a corrugated web may also fail in an elasto-plastic web shear buckling mode. Hence, elasto-plastic shear buckling of the sinusoidal corrugated web in arches must also be considered in their design.