JOURNAL OF CIVIL ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT

2010
16(2): 166–171

PLATE GIRDERS WITH CORRUGATED WEBS

Hartmut Pasternak1, Gabriel Kubieniec2

1, 2
Brandenburg University of Technology, Konrad-Wachsmann-Allee 2, 03046 Cottbus, Germany
E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]
Received 25 Sept. 2009; accepted 20 Jan. 2010

Abstract. Especially for the main frames of single-storey steel buildings the use of corrugated web beams, mainly with
sinusoidal corrugation, has been increased very much during the last years. Due to the thin web of 1,5 mm to 3 mm corru-
gated web beams afford a significant weight reduction compared with hot rolled profiles or welded I-sections. Buckling
failure of the web is prevented by the corrugation. The buckling resistance of presently used sinusoidal corrugated webs is
comparable with plane webs of 12 mm thickness or more. Due to improvements of the automatic fabrication process cor-
rugated webs up to 6 mm thickness became possible. Therefore the field of application of this beam type has been ex-
tended considerable. Even short span bridges are possible now. The dimensioning of corrugated web beams is ruled by the
EN 1993-1-5 Annex D – it covers only web thicknesses up to 3 mm. In the last years many tests and finite element simu-
lations have been carried out. Regarding this background, these EN rules will be discussed and extended. Furthermore,
additional proposals for patch loading and lateral-torsional buckling of girders with sinussoidal webs will be given.
Keywords: plate girder, sinusoidal corrugated web, stability.

1. Introduction Since the end of the 80ies of last century corrugated

web beams with sinusoidal corrugated webs are produced
Especially for the main frames of single-storey steel by an automated production process. In 1988 the first
buildings the use of corrugated web beams, mainly with machine for the production SIN-beams were developed
sinusoidal corrugation, has been increased very much by ZEMAN, Austria. These semi-automatic machines of
during the last years (Fig. 1). Due to the thin web of 2 or the first generation were able to produce SIN-beams with
3 mm, corrugated web beams afford a significant weight parallel flanges and a web thickness of 2.0 mm, 2.5 mm
reduction compared with hot rolled profiles or welded or 3.0 mm (Siokola 1997).
I-sections. Buckling failure of the web is prevented by the
corrugation. The buckling resistance of presently used 2. Automatic fabrication process
sinusoidal corrugated webs is comparable with plane
webs of 12 mm thickness or more. The machines of latest generation are able to produce
SIN-beams by a fully automated process (Pasternak et al.
2008). A more variable design of cross sections, a variety
of web thickness, lower beam heights and smaller flange
dimensions became possible. Furthermore tapered beams
and machine-made web openings can be produced.
Actually there are around 10 production lines around
the world. The automatic production (Fig. 2) of the
following beam dimensions is possible:
− Web height 333, 500, 625, 750, 1000, 1250 and
1500 [mm]
− Web thickness 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5, 6 [mm]
− Flange thickness from 6 to 30 [mm]
− Flange width from 120 to 450 [mm]
The maximum beam length of 16 m corresponds to the
Fig. 1. Single-storey building maximum range of welding robots. Usually beam are
shorter because of the limits for the transport, galvanizing
When corrugated web beam have been developed etc. For tapered beams the maximum length is 12 m. Due
during the 60ies of last century, especially the profiling of to improvements corrugated webs up to 6 mm thickness
the web and the welding was hand work. Due to the pro- became possible. Therefore the field of application of this
gress of welding technology an automatic fabrication beam type has been extended considerable. Even short
process became possible. span bridges are possible now. The web material comes

166 JOURNAL OF CIVIL ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT ISSN 1392–3730 print / ISSN 1822–3605 online
http:/www.jcem.vgtu.lt doi:10.3846/jcem.2010.17
Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 2010, 16(2): 166–171 167

from a coil. It is unrolled and cut to length automatically

by the machine. A so called “corrugator” forms the sheet
to a corrugated web. The flanges has been already pre-
pared and stored in special flange baskets. After the run-
ning-in of the web and flanges into the welding station all
members are moved to the correct position, are pushed
together and are welded by the welding robots.

Fig. 4. Gerber hinge

Fig. 2. Automatic production process

3. Application examples
The basic areas of use of girders with sinusoidally corru-
gated web are main single- or multi-span frames consisting
of columns and rafters. In addition, there are also applica-
tions in heavy industrial buildings. Fig. 3 shows a crane
way column and Fig. 4 a Gerber hinge, used in a multi-
span frame in a mill at Katowice, Poland (Pasternak,
2004). In the Innsbruck Stadium, Austria, extended for Fig. 5. Roof structure of Innsbruck Stadium (Wimmer 2008)
Euro 2008, 16 m long SIN beams are used as purlins
(Fig. 5). Thanks to good distribution of mass within the bending capacity with relatively low self weight. In com-
cross-section, those girders can be characterised by high parison with traditional hot-rolled profiles, the reduction
of self weight amounts even up to 40%.

4. Present state of codes

4.1. General
Actually beams with corrugated webs are ruled by the Euro-
code EN 1993-1-5, Annex D (EC-3 2006). There used to be
older standards as well, e.g. the German DASt-Ri 015 from
1990. But these standards deal about beams with trapezoidal
corrugated webs only (EC-3 2006). Only by consideration of
additional papers (Pasternak et al. 1998) and expert opinions
(Pasternak et al. 1998, 2008), it became possible to use this
document for the calculation of sinusoidal corrugated webs.
The EN 1993-1-5 gives rules for both trapezoidal corruga-
tion and sinusoidal corrugation. Whereas the dimensioning
procedure for trapezoidal corrugated webs bases on the tests
results for sinusoidal corrugated webs, the latest test results
are not considered by the given rules. Therefore the calcula-
tion procedure according to EN is comparatively conservati-
ve. The bearing behaviour of a beam with corrugated web is
comparable with a lattice girder. Normal force and bending
moment are carried by the flanges only. Due to the corruga-
tion the web is not able to carry any normal stresses in the
Fig. 3. Crane way column longitudinal direction of the beam. Therefore the web is
loaded by shear force only.
168 H. Pasternak, G. Kubieniec. Plate girders with corrugated webs

4.2. Bending moment resistance of flanges For local buckling the following reduction factor is
defined:
To verify the bending moment capacity of a beam, the
1,15
resistance of flanges against yielding and global and local χ c ,l = ≤1, (2)
buckling for the compression flange has to be taken into 0,9 + λc,l
account. Lateral-torsional buckling of beam is verified by
where: χ c, l is the reduction factor and λc,l the reference
global out-of-plane buckling of the compression flange.
The verification is a conservative assumption because the slenderness for local web buckling.
torsional stiffness is neglected. Local buckling of the
flange (cross section class 4) is considered by the determi- 5. Global and local buckling of web
nation of a reduced flange width. A reduced yield strength For global web buckling the given rule matches the test
fyf.r considers the influence of transverse bending moments. results very well (Fig. 6). It was found by testing and
These moments are caused by the shear flow longitudinal FEM (e.g. Pasternak et al. 1998) that no local buckling
to the joint of flange / corrugated web. It has to be taken occurs for all actually produced beams with sinusoidal
into account for trapezoidal corrugated webs. Actually corrugated webs. That means any reduction should be
produced sinusoidal corrugated webs have a small corruga- necessary for a reference slenderness smaller than 0,74
tion height compared with the width of flanges. Therefore (area I of Fig. 7). A second reason for further research is
the influence of transverse bending moments is negligible. the probably to large reduction factors for a reference
slenderness greater than 1,5 (area II of Fig. 7). The reduc-
4.3. Shear force resistance of web tion curve shows overcritical reserves of bearing capac-
The web loaded by shear force can fail due to yielding, local ity. This behaviour is typical for plate buckling and there-
buckling and global buckling. The EN 1993-1-5 defines the fore understandable for trapezoidal corrugated webs that
reduction factor for global web buckling as follows (Fig. 6): consist of plate elements. However, a sinusoidal corru-
gated web is mainly a shell structure. The overcritical
1,5
χ c, g = ≤ 1, (1) reserve of the reduction curve of EN 1993-1-5 has to be
0,5 + λ2c, g proved.
where: χ c, g is the reduction factor and λc, g the refer-
ence slenderness for global web buckling.

Fig. 7. Reduction curve for local buckling EN 1993-1-5

6. Lateral-torsional buckling
Concerning lateral-torsional buckling four tests and a
large amount of FE simulations have been carried out
(Hannebauer 2008). Tests and FE results in comparison
with European buckling curves are given in Fig. 8.

7. Patch loading
In the parameter study girders with various forms of cor-
rugation the patch load was investigated, the length and
the amplitude of the wave were varied (Pasternak et al.
1989, 2004) (Fig. 9). From many series of FE simulations
a simple approach of the ultimate load was developed
0, 4
Fig. 6. Global buckling curve: a – test, b – curve and results ⎛W ⎞
Fult = 10⎜ el ⎟ ⋅ 2 ⋅ f ⋅ t ⋅ f y,d , (3)
according to (Pasternak et al. 1996, 1998, 2008) ⎝ I /t ⎠
Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 2010, 16(2): 166–171 169

a) a)

b)

b)

Fig. 9. Patch loading: a – test, b – FEM

Fig. 8. Lateral-torsional buckling: a – test girder V6c,

b – test and FEM in comparison with European buckling curves

where: Wel – effective section modulus of the flange; I –

moment of inertia of a full wave about the horizontal axis
of symmetry; t – web thickness; 2f, q– amplitude and
length of the wave
2,12
⎛2f ⎞ Fig. 10. Welding simulation
I = 0,158 ⋅ t ⋅ q 3 ⎜⎜ ⎟⎟ . (4)
⎝ q ⎠
with flanges 25×200 [mm] and webs 3×500 [mm]
The domain of definition is limited to 3 mm web thick- (Fig. 10), loaded by two concentrated forces, each placed
ness and 100 mm load distribution length. Analyzing a in distance 465 mm from a vertical axis of symmetry of
failure state (Kozlowski 2007), this formula gives reason- girder. Two areas of investigations are distinguished i.e.
able ultimate loads. An extension of this formula to web local focused on welding simulations and global designed
thicknesses of 6 mm is necessary. to describe behaviour of whole girder. The welding simu-
lations showed that the average thickness of weld joining
8. Interaction web and flange is about 2.8 mm and is accompanied by
First interaction diagrams between the bending moment penetration of thermal source at width about 4 mm in every
and shear force resp. patch load are given in (Pasternak et direction (Fig. 11). The residual stresses coming from wel-
al. 2004). ding process are important parameter especially in nonlin-
ear analysis that is why it should be carefully analysed.
9. Present research Strain gauge measurements (Fig. 12) showed highly non-
linear normal stress distribution across the cross-section of
At the Universities of Technology in Cottbus and Braun- flange especially in area of welding zone. This nonlinearity
schweig there is carried out a research programme within is much more visible in tension flange than in compression
the frame work of a national research project (AIF 2008). one, and can be an evidence of existing residual stresses
The main aim of the study is to describe influence of weld- coming from welding process which are superimposed with
ing process on carrying capacity of girder with sinusoidally those from bending (Fig. 13 and 14). The comparison of
corrugated web. The analysed girder was 7 m long beam diagrams representing dependence of normal stresses on
170 H. Pasternak, G. Kubieniec. Plate girders with corrugated webs

load for example in points 1 and 3 (Fig. 15) showed that

in case of point 1 the curves run together parallel while in
point 3 are clearly diverse. This can be a result of influ-
ence of thermal residual stresses. Moreover there was
described the width of web along which exist high normal
stresses coming from bending. This width was estimated
at 5 cm below the connection of the web and the flange
(Fig. 16). That means that in very close vicinity of weld
i.e. 50 mm there can be a superposition of normal stresses
caused by welding and bending. The resultant normal
stresses interact with those caused by shear force and
there is a suggestion to subtract this area from shear area
in design calculations. Additionally it has to be underli-
Fig. 11. Test specimen ned that two effects i.e. increase of yield strength of ma-
terial of web due to cold-forming process and existence
of high normal stresses in mentioned above areas of web
are not considered in actual design.

Fig. 14. Normal stress distribution in bottom flange

Fig. 12. Layout of gauges on flange (a) and web (b)

Fig. 13. Normal stress distribution in top flange Fig. 15. Comparison of load-normal stress curve
Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 2010, 16(2): 166–171 171

Hannebauer, D. 2008. Zur Querschnitts- und Stabtragfähigkeit

von Trägern mit profilierten Stegen. Dissertation, BTU
Cottbus.
Kozlowski, A. 2007. Failure state of roof structure with corru-
gated web´s girders. Awarie budowlane, Szczecin (in Po-
lish).
Pasternak, H. 1996. Gutachterliche Stellungnahme zur Quer-
krafttragfähigkeit von Wellstegträgern. Braunschweig/
Cottbus.
Pasternak, H.; Branka, P. 1998. Zum Tragverhalten von
Wellstegträgern, Bauingenieur 73: 437–444.
Pasternak, H.; Branka, P. 1999. Tragverhalten von Wellsteg-
trägern unter lokaler Last einleitung, Bauingenieur 74:
219–224.
Fig. 16. Normal stress in web Pasternak, H; Hannebauer, D. 2004. Träger mit profilierten
Stegen, Stahlbau-Kalender 2004. Berlin, Verlag Ernst &
10. Conclusion Sohn, 449–492.
Pasternak, H.; Robra, J.; Bachmann, V. 2008a. Corrugated web
EN 1993-1-5 Annex D rules have been discussed for actu- beams with increased web thickness, in Proceedings
ally produced sinusiodal girders. For those girders do not 5thEuropea Conference on Steel and Composite Struc-
appear local buckling effects before the web reaches its tures, Graz, Austria 2008, 1161–1166.
yielding shear capacity. The buckling curve should be Pasternak, H. 2008b. 2nd expert opinion on the shear capacity
improved. Furthermore, additional proposals for patch of girders with sinusoidally corrugated web.
loading and lateral-torsional buckling of girders with si- Braunschweig/ Cottbus 2008.
nussoidal webs were given. Moreover tests showed nonlin- Siokola, W. 1997. Wellstegträger. Herstellung und Anwendung
ear stress-strain relationship. This is a consequence of exis- von Trägern mit profiliertem Steg, Stahlbau 66: 595–605.
tence of thermal fields and initial stresses coming from Wimmer, A., et al. 2008. Stadion Innsbruck „Tivoli neu“ für
welding of web to flanges and also from cold-forming Euro 2008 erweitert, Bauingenieur 83: 405–409.
process of web. These aspects are studied in a national Yan-lin, G.; Qing-lin, Z.; Siokola, W.; Hofer, A. 2008. Flange
research project, carried out in Cottbus and Braunschweig. buckling behaviour of the H-shaped member with sinu-
soidal webs, in Fifth International Conference on Thin-
References Walled Structures, Brisbane, Australia, 2008.
Eurocode 3 – Design of steel structures – Part 1–5: Plated
AIF Einsatz der Schweißsimulation zur systematischen
structural elements, Annex D, European committee for
Entwicklung verbesserter Modelle für die Berechnung der
standardisation (CEN): 2006.
Tragfähigkeit komplexer Stahlleichtbaustrukturen P 785/
08/2008 / IGF-Nr. 287 ZBG.

SUDĖTINĖS SIJOS SU GOFRUOTĄJA SIENELE

H. Pasternak, G. Kubienec
Santrauka
Pastaruoju metu ypač vienaukščių pastatų plieniniams rėmams imtos plačiai naudoti sijos su pagal sinusoidę banguota sie-
nele. Dėl plonų 1,5–3,0 mm storio gofruotųjų sijų sienelių jų masė gerokai sumažėja, palyginti su karštai valcuotomis arba
virintinėmis dvitėjo skerspjūvio sijomis. Sijos sienelės klumpamosios irties išvengiama dėl sienelės bangavimo. Šiuo metu
naudojamų pagal sinusoidę subanguotų sienelių klumpamoji galia yra lygintina su 12 mm arba didesnio storio plokščių
sienelių galia. Patobulinus automatinį gaminimo procesą gofruotąją sienelę galima padaryti iki 6 mm storio. Todėl labai
išsiplečia šių sijų naudojimo sritys. Sijos gali būti naudojamos nedidelio tarpatramio tiltams. Banguotasienių sijų projek-
tavimo metodika aprašyta EN 1993-1-5 D priede, tačiau ji galioja tik sijoms, kurių sienelės storis neviršija 3 mm. Pastarai-
siais metais atlikta daug bandymų ir skaitinių eksperimentų baigtinių elementų metodu. Todėl šios EN projektavimo nuo-
statos bus aptariamos ir išplėstos. Be to, straipsnyje pateiktos papildomos rekomendacijos, kaip vertinti sijų su pagal
sinusoidę banguota sienele uždėtąją apkrovą ir lenkiamąjį sukamąjį klupumą.
Reikšminiai žodžiai: sudėtinės sijos, pagal sinusoidę banguota sienelė, pastovumas.
Prof. Hartmut PASTERNAK is involved in teaching, research and design of steel structures for more than 20 years. He
is member in several National and International Committees (e.g.full member of the ECCS Technical Committee 8
“Structural Stability”, member of German subcommittee DASt-Ri015 “Girders with thin webs”, member of COST C25
action “Sustainability of Constructions”, member of the working group Eurocode 3 “Cranesupporting structures”). He has
participated in numerous research projects (e.g. on thin-walled members and sheeting). Under his supervision 8 PhD´s
were completed. He has several publications in Journals and at Conferences (more than 100) and is co-author of books in
German (4) and English (1) on steel structures. Moreover he is the editor of the journal “Bauingenieur” for steel structures.
Gabriel KUBIENIEC is a scientific assistant at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus in Germany since
2009. He got PhD in 2009. His research interests include the behavior of thin-walled steel structures. He has 12 publica-
tions in Journals and at Conferences.