Shear behavior of partially encased composite I-girder with corrugated steel web: Numerical study

Shear behavior of partially encased composite I-girders with corrugated web has been investigated analytically and numerically in this paper. A 3-D finite element model with geometric and material nonlinearity is established and verified by the experiments. Subsequently, a parametric study is carried out to examine the effects of geometric and material properties on the shear behavior which includes corrugation, height, thickness, connection degree between steel web and concrete encasement. It is found that the ultimate shear strength of steel I-girders is improved with increases in the thickness, height and yield strength of corrugated web, while the ultimate shear strength of partially encased composite I-girders increases with the thickness, yield strength of corrugated web and the thickness, compressive strength of concrete encasement. However, the stud stiffness has little influence on the ultimate shear strength. Moreover, the concrete encasement improves the shear strength of steel I-girders, the degree of improvement increases with the thickness and compressive strength of the concrete, but decreases drastically with the thickness of corrugated web. Therefore, it is suggested that concrete should be poured on the corrugated web with thin thickness or low yield strength to prevent buckling occurrence before yielding of steel web. Finally, shear strength prediction equations are proposed and verified by numerical results. The calculated shear strength agree well with the numerical results for steel I-girders before and after composite with concrete, which indicates that the proposed analytical equations can be applied to predict the shear strength of such partially encased composite girders with corrugated web.

► Shear behavior has been analytically and numerically investigated.
► 3D FEM considering geometrical and material nonlinearity is established.
► A parametric study is carried out to examine the effects on shear behavior.
► Analytical equations of shear strength are presented and verified.