Shear strength of steel-concrete composite I-beams with corrugated steel webs

Corrugated steel webs have been widely applied to steel-concrete composite beams due to their excellent shear performance. However, there needs to be adequate research on the shear behavior of steel-concrete composite I-beams with corrugated steel webs, and the proportional distribution of shear forces between concrete flanges and corrugated steel webs in composite I-beams has yet to be clarified. This paper experimentally investigates steel-concrete composite I-beams with corrugated steel webs with different shear span ratios. With the increase of the shear span ratio, the shear failure mode of the beam gradually evolves from shear-dominated to flexural-dominated, the shear capacity and structural stiffness of the beam are negatively affected, and the improvement of the shear resistance of the beam after webs buckling is gradually limited. As the primary shear component, corrugated steel webs contribute about 71 % to 92 % of the total sectional shear force. Notably, accounting for 15 % to 35 % of the shear capacity of the beam, the shear contribution of the concrete flange must also be typically considered. For the generalizability of research results, parametric studies are conducted using validated numerical models to comprehensively investigate the effects of steel yield strength, concrete strength, web thickness, web height, and shear span ratio. Afterward, an efficient analytical model considering the shear capacity of the concrete flange is proposed to estimate the shear strength of composite I-beams with corrugated steel webs. The proposed analytical model agrees satisfactorily with experimental and numerical analysis results. The research results can provide valuable support for designing and optimizing steel-concrete composite I-beams with corrugated steel webs.