Shear Performance of Tapered Beams with Concrete Flanges and Corrugated Steel Webs: Theory, Experiments, and Numerical Simulations

Abstract

This study experimentally and numerically demonstrated that the traditional basic shear method is not applicable for estimating the shear stresses in tapered beams with corrugated steel webs (CSWs). The vertical components of the inclined flange forces (which are zero in the prismatic case) may decrease or increase the effective shear force on the tapered CSWs, which are reflective of the positive and negative influences of the Resal effect. In addition to the CSWs, the inclined flange also participates in resisting the shear force in a tapered beam with CSWs, and the shear forces borne by the CSWs and inclined flanges are mainly adjusted by the bending moment. Accordingly, an improved method, which is referred to as the modified shear method, was proposed in this study by considering the web shear modification of CSWs and the shear resistance of the inclined flange. The study also revealed that the effective shear force on the CSWs of regular tapered beams is actually larger than the total shear force, especially in sections that are subjected to larger moments. Thus, the calculated shear stresses in the CSWs predicted by the basic shear method are smaller than the actual values. The shear stresses that act on the corrugated webs of the reverse tapered beams with CSWs would be overestimated using the basic shear method. Parametric finite-element (FE) analysis showed that the proposed modified shear method can reflect the actual stress condition of tapered beams with CSWs. The modified shear method can be analytically reduced to the traditional basic shear method when applied to prismatic cases. This study is expected to provide a novel strategy and theoretical guideline for rapidly and efficiently obtaining the shear stresses in a variable cross-section beam with CSWs.