Comparison of the Efficiencies of Web Cutouts for Steel Plate Girders with Corrugated Webs Versus Flat Webs Under Pure Shear

Corrugated steel-plate girders are used as structural elements in many applications because of their properties, cutouts are always provided in these plate elements to enable inspection and servicing. This study presents an experimental and analytical study to investigate the efficiency of a steel-plate girder with corrugated webs (GCWs) and flat webs (GFWs) having cutouts under shear loading. In this study, we investigated the influence of some important parameters on the girders’ load-bearing capacity. The experimental program was conducted on six full-scale plate girders, which have been tested under central load at mid-span. The analysis was conducted using ANSYS V20 to perform a nonlinear technique for the determination of the ultimate load of the tested girders. Finally, experimental and finite element model were used to define the ratio of increasing carrying capacity in plate girder with flat and corrugated web, having cutout under shear loading. The ultimate strength, failure mechanism, and load-deflection curves from the experimental and analytical study show that the shear capacity of the girder with corrugated web girders extends loads by 22 % compared with the flat web.