Analysis of local elastic shear buckling of trapezoidal corrugated steel webs

• The local elastic shear buckling strength of trapezoidal corrugated steel webs is studied.
• Corrugated web geometry (fold width ratio, aspect ratio, etc.) strongly affects the strength.
• The buckling strength is represented by an local elastic shear buckling coefficient.
• The commonly-used coefficient value often provides inaccurate buckling strength.
• An accurate formula for the local elastic shear buckling coefficient is given.

The local elastic shear buckling strength of trapezoidal corrugated steel webs is investigated using finite element (FE) and theoretical analyses. The local elastic shear buckling strength is represented by the local elastic shear buckling coefficient, which is obtained from FE analysis. Although inelastic buckling will control the shear strength of most practical corrugated webs, the local elastic shear buckling coefficient is an important parameter in the shear strength calculation. This study shows that the fold width ratio, defined as the longitudinal fold width over the inclined fold width, has a significant influence on the local elastic shear buckling strength as the fold width ratio varies from 1.0 to 2.0. It is shown that the commonly-used local elastic shear buckling coefficient underestimates the local shear buckling strength by a considerable margin when the fold width ratio is greater than 1.0. It is also shown that the local elastic shear buckling coefficient is sensitive to the fold height-to-width aspect ratio, the fold width-to-thickness ratio, and the web corrugation angle, but is insensitive to the flange-thickness-to-web-thickness ratio when it varies from 5 to 15. Based on regression of FE analysis results, a formula is proposed to improve the calculation of the local shear buckling strength, in which parameters such as fold width ratio, fold aspect ratio, fold width-to-thickness ratio, and corrugation angle are taken into account.