Interactive shear buckling behavior of trapezoidally corrugated steel webs

Trapezoidally corrugated steel plates have been used as the web of pre-stressed concrete box girder bridges to reduce dead load and increase structural efficiency. Due to an applied shear stress, the trapezoidally corrugated web can fail by three different shear buckling modes: local, global, and interactive shear buckling. Local buckling involves a single panel, whereas global buckling involves multiple panels, with buckles extending over the entire depth of the web. The interactive buckling is rather complex and is an intermediate type of shear buckling between local buckling and global buckling, which involves several panels. In this study, a series of finite element analyses was carried out to study the geometric parameters affecting interactive shear buckling modes and strength. Based on the analysis results, the interactive shear buckling strength formula is proposed. The proposed formula agreed well with the experimental data.