Shear Buckling Response Of S690 Steel Plate Girders With Corrugated Webs

High-strength steels (HSSs) are now used globally in different structural applications. Nevertheless, investigations on HSS elements are still rare. Herein, the shear buckling response of S690 steel plate girders with corrugated webs (CWGs) is explored. This is based on virtual tests, generated by finite element (FE) modelling, that well simulate their actual behaviour. Accordingly, S690 material model is firstly checked from a recent test campaign by Sun et al. (2019). Then, the FE models are verified through comparisons with the available tests on HSS CWGs conducted by Driver et al. (2006). Based on the successful validation, virtual testing, by using the software Abaqus, is currently generated to examine the effects of the geometrical characteristics of the crosssection (in terms of the thickness (tw) and the height (hw) of the web). The results show that by increasing the value of tw, the strength of the girders increase efficiently. Conversely, increasing hw is found to increase the girder's strength, but with slightly less increase in the strength compared with the increase of the web's weight. Furthermore, the shear strengths are compared with different design models available in the literature. The design model by Leblouba et al. (2017) is found to be the best predictor for the current girders with equal fold widths. The paper extends to explore the effect of varying the design parameters of the corrugated webs on the shear response of CWGs with unequal fold widths. Accordingly, multiple virtual tests are simulated and compared to help in designing efficient corrugated webs in the future. At the end, the design model by Leblouba et al. (2017) is slightly modified by considering the effect of the fixed juncture between the rigid flanges and the web. Through this modification, the most suitable predictor for S690 CWGs is obtained with an accuracy that is not depending on the slenderness of the girder. So, it is currently recommended for design purpose of S690 CWGs with unequal fold widths.