Direct strength method for shear capacity of beams with corrugated webs

Beams with corrugated webs and flat plate flanges have been used in buildings around the world for many years. In the design of these beams, the longitudinal stiffness of the corrugated web is assumed to be negligible and so the moment capacity is derived entirely from the flanges while the shear capacity of the beam is based on the shear strength of the web alone. The advantage of beams with corrugated webs is the increased resistance to shear buckling without the need to weld stiffeners to the web. Despite the extensive use of beams with corrugated webs, there are no formal Australian or American design rules for the shear capacity of the corrugated web. In this paper, design equations based on the direct strength method are derived for the shear capacity of beams with trapezoidal corrugated webs. Finite element analysis results from previous research are analysed to determine the local shear buckling coefficient which is used to calculate the local shear buckling force in the design equations. The proposed design equations are then compared with previous shear test results on beams with corrugated webs and a reliability analysis is performed to calculate the capacity factor.