Innovative Steel Plate Girders With Corrugated Webs

Girders with corrugated steel webs represent a new innovative system which has emerged in the past decade. These girders have thinner webs, higher fatigue resistance, and are more economical, easier to fabricate, more aesthetic, and provide faster construction compared to ordinary plate girders with stiffeners or reinforced concrete beams. They have been adopted in several countries for construction of a variety of structures; however, the current Indian code on steel structures does not contain provisions for their design. In this article, Dr. N. Subramanian provides some in-depth information and references for designing these innovative girders as an alternative to RC bridges and girders.

To increase the shear capacity of large steel plate girders, shaped webs may be used; in this situation, the web plate is first cold-formed with waves or corrugations usually parallel to the web depth and then welded to the flanges. Although many types of corrugations are possible, trapezoidal and sinusoidal corrugations have received the most attention.