The effect of using tubular flanges in bridge girders with corrugated steel webs on their shear behaviour - A numerical study

Due to the reduction in the financial plans in recent years, innovative bridge girders with corrugated webs have been widely studied and used to reduce the construction costs. Additionally, flat flanges have in some cases been replaced by hollow tubular flanges. These two innovative solutions have been found separately to provide girders with superior load carrying capacities. This paper, however, tries to combine the advantages of the corrugated webs and the hollow tubular flanges into one structural bridge girder. Accordingly, bridge girders with corrugated webs and hollow tubular flanges (BGCWTFs), which have seldom been considered in literature, are investigated here under constant shear loading. This is done by using Abaqus software on large-scale girders, with the main aim of examining the influence of using hollow tubular flanges on the strength and behaviour of these BGCWTFs. Opposite to what was previously found in literature, the results show the great effect of adding upper and lower tubular flanges to the strength and stiffness of the girders compared with the case of flat flange girders, though using tubular flanges with small depth-to-width ratios is found insignificant. The fundamental behaviour of the BGCWTFs has been addressed and the shear strengths are compared with available design model for the first author. Overall, the current results show the importance of considering the shear contribution from the flange with large depth-to-width ratios.