Simulation of accordion effect in corrugated steel web with concrete flanges

Prestressed concrete girders with corrugated steel webs are one of the promising concrete–steel hybrid structures applied to highway bridges. Prestress can be efficiently introduced into the concrete flanges due to the so-called “accordion effect” of the corrugated web. In this paper, a simple approach is presented to account for three-dimensional phenomena of the accordion effect using link-type elements within a two-dimensional finite element model. The vertical links are given a very high stiffness to fully transmit vertical shear force, whereas the horizontal link stiffness is given a value calculated from the out-of-plane bending of a folded plate forming each trapezoidal corrugation. Viability of the approach is demonstrated through comparison of experimental and numerical results for a large-scale specimen of a prestressed concrete beam with corrugated steel web.