International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 3, Issue 4, April 2013)
COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CONVENTIONAL AND
CORRUGATED STEEL WEBS IN BEAMS AND
BRIDGES
Narayanan.J1
1
School of Mechanical and Building Sciences, VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu 632014, India
1
jvnarayanan91@gmail.com
Abstract— The conventional flat webs have been used in steel
I sections for the use in beams and plate girders in bridges.
But the recent advances have introduced the use of corrugated
steel webs replacing the conventional flat webs in beams and
plate girders. To mainly increase the shear capacity in web of
beams and large plate girders. Since, the flat webs fail mostly
due to shear buckling. The use of corrugated webs
considerably reduces the self-weight of the beams and
ultimately proves economical for longer spans. The use of
corrugated webs for compression members are recently
proved advantageous. The corrugated webs can also be used
to replace the pre-stressed concrete webs in box girders for
producing light weight and highly economical long span
bridges. In this Project, beams and bridge girders will be
designed using conventional webs and corrugated webs
following Indian and European standard codes. Various
values like moment capacity, shear capacity and self-weight
will be computed and compared. The results show that
Keywords—Corrugated web, Finite Element Analysis, Shear
capacity, bridge girder, Web buckling.
I. INTRODUCTION
Beams are the most versatile building component which
occupies a major role in carrying and transferring loads to
the columns. Beams are generally flexural members used to
span between two supports. Hence bending and shear are
the major forces occurring on a beam. As a result of the
bending and shear forces the stresses occurs in the beam.
Hence the beam has to be designed for both shear and
bending forces.
Conventionally flat webs have been used a webs for steel I
girders. The conventional webs are easy to produce and
involve simple welding process. But they have certain
disadvantages when put to use. The flat webs in the beams
tend to buckle and they lead to fail. This disadvantage
demands thicker webs and the use of stiffeners when used
for longer spans ultimately resulting in expensive designs.
1
The use of corrugated webs in beams gaining more fame
due to their many advantages over conventional webs.
By replacing the conventional flat webs with corrugated
webs, the thickness of the webs can be reduced to a great
extent and the use of intermediate stiffeners is completely
eliminated. Since the corrugated webs have sinusoidal or
trapezoidal corrugation forms, they offer greater stability
against buckling for the web. The use of thinner sections
results in low dead load and ultimately economical section.
The corrugated steel webs can also be used to replace the
prestressed concrete webs in the case of box girder bridges.
Since the replacement of concrete with steel, they save a
great deal of high strength concrete and reduces self-weight
which in-turn leads to longer spans and cost-effective
design.
II. DESIGN ASPECTS
Beams with conventional flat webs can be easily
designed using Indian standard codes. But, there are no
specification or design formulas in Indian standard or IRC
design codes. Hence, European standard codes have to be
adopted to find out the shear and Moment capacity of the
beams.
In conventional beams, the shear and moment capacity
of the beams depend on both the flange and web
dimensions and parameters. But in the case of corrugated
webs beams, since the webs are very thin when compared
to the flat web thickness, the design not the same as in flat
webs. In the case of flat web beams, the webs take care of
the compressive stress and transmit the shear in the beam,
while flanges supports the external loads and takes care of
bending. In the case of corrugated webs the moment is
completely taken care by the flanges and the shear by the
web. Previous studies show that the corrugated web could
be totally neglected in the beam design calculation dute to
insignificant contribution of the beam’s load carrying
capacity (Khalid et.al, 2004)
 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 3, Issue 4, April 2013)
IV. ADVANTAGES OF CORRUGATED WEB
The corrugated web beams are gaining importance in
today’s world and is used in many applications due to their
several advantages over the conventional flat webs. Even
though the corrugated webs require a complicated
automated production unit they ultimately prove
economical for longer spans. Some of the advantages are

 Increased shear strength

FIGURE 1 CORRUGATED WEB BEAM
III. CODE SPECIFICATION
The design of the beams is done using Indian and
European codes standards. The details of the codes and
formulas used for the calculation are given below.
A. Indian standard code design
The Indian standard code IS 800:2007 has been used for
the design of the conventional beams with flat webs. The
shear and moment capacity of the beam is calculated using
the below formula.
The shear capacity is calculated from clause 8.4 of
IS800:2007.
Vd =
The Moment capacity is calculated from clause 8.2.1.2
of IS800:2007.
M=
 Increased fatigue strength
 Economical
 Improved aesthetics
 Can be used for more spans
 Easy for cantilever method of construction
 Reduced construction time
 Easy to fabricate when compared to PSC webs
 Easily transportable when compared to PSC webs
V. BEAM SPECIFICATIONS
The corrugated webs are made using robotic welding
machines since the sinusoidal welding is very hard for
manual labours to perform. Moreover, high efficiency and
precision of welding are attained from the use of robots for
welding process. In the case of trapezoidal web profile the
beams are welded using automated or manual welding.
Hence the beam dimensions with which they are readily
available and are economical are adopted for the design
process.

B. European code design  Web height (mm) - 333, 500, 625, 750, 1000,
1250 and 1500
The corrugated web beam is designed using  Web thickness (mm) - 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5, 6
EUROCODE EN 1993-1-5 Annex D and the formula is  Flange thickness (mm) - from 6 to 30
given below  Flange width (mm) - from120 to 450
𝑉𝑅𝑑=𝜒𝑐× ×h𝑤×𝑡𝑤  Span of the beam (mm) - from 2000 to 5000
 Wavelength(w) (mm) - from 77.5 to 310

FIGURE 2 CORRUGATED WEB BEAM SECTION & PLAN

2
 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 3, Issue 4, April 2013)

The graphs comparing the shear capacity of the flat web

VI. DESIGN SECTIONS
beam and corrugated beam is shown below in Fig IV, V
The sections are designed varying every possible aspect and VI
i.e. the flange width, thickness, web thickness, depth,
corrugation wavelength.
160
 Web height (mm) - 300, 500, 800 140
Flat web
 Web thickness (mm) - 2, 3, 4 120
 Flange thickness (mm) - 8, 10, 15 100
Corrugated
 Flange width (mm) - 160, 200, 240 80 web W =310
 Span of the beam (mm) - 5000 60
Corrugated
 Wavelength(w) (mm) - 310, 200 40 web W =200
 Yield stress(Fy)(N/mm2) – 250 20
0
2mm 3mm 4mm

FIGURE 4 SHEAR COMPARISON D=300MM

250

200 Flat web

150
FIGURE 3 CORRUGATED BEAM Corrugated
web W =310
100
VII. RESULTS Corrugated
The design of both the flat web beam and the corrugated 50 web W =200
beams are done using code specifications and the results of
the calculations are tabulated below 0
TABLE I 2mm 3mm 4mm
SHEAR CAPACITY COMPARISON

FIGURE 5 SHEAR COMPARISON D=500MM

Corrugated Corrugated
Flat
Sections web Web
Web
W = 310mm W = 200mm 400
tw d = 300 mm 350
Flat web
2mm 26.14 48.49 58.89 300
3mm 60.72 86.60 98.72 250
Corrugated
4mm 82.72 126.09 138.5 200 web W =310
d = 500 mm 150 Corrugated
2mm 15.57 80.82 98.14 100 web W =200
3mm 53.06 143.76 164.5 50
4mm 78.2 173.20 235.5 0
d = 800 mm 2mm 3mm 4mm
2mm 9.72 129.32 157.03
3mm 32.9 230.01 263.27
4mm 68.36 336.24 376.89 FIGURE 6 SHEAR COMPARISON D=800M

3
 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 3, Issue 4, April 2013)
TABLE 2 3mm 271.39 370.80
MOMENT CAPACITY COMPARISON
4mm 281.74 370.80
Flat Web Corrugated web
Sections
Moment capacity W = 310mm
Web Thickness 160 x 8 mm, d = 300 mm
2mm 31.81 78.84 400
350
3mm 34.90 78.84 300
4mm 38.22 78.44 250 160x8mm
200x10 mm, d = 300 mm 200 200x10mm
150 210x15mm
2mm 68.36 124.00 100
3mm 72.56 124.00 50
4mm 77.34 124.00 0
Flat web Corrugated
240 x 15 mm, d = 300 mm
web
2mm 156.54 206.84
3mm 160.00 206.84
4mm 163.21 206.84 FIGURE 5 SHEAR COMPARISON D=500MM
TABLE 2
MOMENT CAPACITY COMPARISON

Flat Web
Corrugated web
250 Sections Moment
W = 310mm
capacity
200 Web Thickness 160 x 8 mm, d = 800 mm
160x8mm 2mm 101.55 206.84
150
200x10mm 3mm 110.63 206.84
100 210x15mm 4mm 124.45 206.84
200 x 10 mm, d = 800 mm
50
2mm 201.19 324.00
0 3mm 224.56 324.00
Flat web Corrugated web 4mm 246.35 324.00
240 x 15 mm, d = 800 mm
2mm 448.39 586.80
FIGURE 5 SHEAR COMPARISON D=300MM
3mm 473.36 586.80
TABLE 2
4mm 495.56 586.80
MOMENT CAPACITY COMPARISON

Flat Web Corrugated

Sections Moment web 700
capacity W = 310mm 600
Web Thickness 160 x 8 mm, d = 300 mm 500
160x8mm
2mm 55.56 130.04 400
200x10mm
3mm 63.63 124.00 300
200 210x15mm
4mm 68.90 124.00
200x10 mm, d = 300 mm 100
2mm 110.54 204.00 0

3mm 118.56 204.00 Flat web Corrugated

web
4mm 125.98 204.00
240 x 15 mm, d = 300 mm
2mm 260.42 370.80 FIGURE 5 SHEAR COMPARISON D=800M
4
 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 3, Issue 4, April 2013)
VIII. DISCUSSION References
The sections are designed varying every possible aspect
i.e. the flange width, thickness, web thickness, depth, [1] Elgaaly, M., Hamilton, R.W. and Seshadri, A. 1996. Shear strength
corrugation wavelength. of beams with corrugated webs, Journal of Structural Engineering,
ASCE, Vol. 122, No. 4, pp. 390-398.
 In flat webs the shear and moment capacity [2] EN 1993-1-1: 2005 Eurocode 3: Design of steel structures- Part 1-1:
depends on both flange and web dimensions General rules and rules for buildings.

 In corrugated webs the shear capacity is
completely dependent on the web parameters.
 And the moment capacity is completely dependent
on flange parameters.
[3] EN 1993-1-5: 2005 Eurocode 3: Design of steel structures- Part 1-5:
Plated structural elements.
[4] M.H Abu Hassan, A. Ibrahim, H. Abdul hamid, B.S. Mohamed
(2008), “ Effect of web and flange thickness of profiled web girder
by using LUSAS” , ICCBT 2008 - C - (45) – pp515-528, Malaysia.

 The shear capacity of the corrugated web is
approximately 60% higher than the flat webs and
it goes to 300% for higher web depths.
 The shear capacity of the corrugated web is very
high and increases with the increase in the depth
of web. The moment capacity of the corrugated
web is approximately 40% higher than the flat
webs.
 The corrugated webs are more efficient and
economical for deeper web depths and hence deep
beams.
 Smaller sections of corrugated web beams
provided more strength than comparatively bigger
sections of flat web beams
 Hence, the weight of the beam can
considerably reduced.
[5] N. Subramanian ―Steel Structures Design and Practice”, Oxford
University Press, New Delhi.
[6] IS 800:2007, Code of practice for general construction in steel,
Bureau of Indian Standards, New Delhi
[7] Hartmut Pasternak, Gabriel Kubieniec (2010), ―Plate Girder with
Corrugated Webs”, ASCE Journal of the Structural engineering,
Brandenburg University of Technology, Germany
[8] Sedky Tohamy, Osama Mohamed Abu El Ela, Ahmed Ibrahim
Mohamed (2013), “Efficiency of plate girder with corrugated web
versus plate girder with flat web”, Minia Journal of Engineering and
Technology, (MJET), Vol. 32, No 1, Egypt.
be

IX. CONCLUSION
The conventional webs have been generally used for
various purposes because of the easy availability of the
beams. In the recent times, because of the technological
advancement and the introduction of automated production
and welding of beams have made the corrugated web
beams easily available. Along with the production, the
corrugated web beams are highly advantageous based on
the experiments and calculations. The design shows that the
corrugated webs show a good increase in the shear capacity
with minimal increase in the thickness of the web. Hence
we can replace conventional heavy beams with light weight
corrugated beams with the same or more load carrying
capacity. Since the corrugated beams reduce the self-
weight of the structure, they can be used for longer spans in
the case of bridges. The use of corrugated web in box
girders of bridges has proved to be very advantageous in
many aspects.