A FINITE ELEMENT STUDY ON THE PERFORMANCE OF CORRUGATED STEEL SECTIONS UNDER COMPRESSION

Corrugated steel sections are having a wide variety of applications in engineering fields like civil, mechanical, aviation, etc. The unique properties of corrugated steel sections make them a better option compared to the conventional thin steel sections. In the current study behaviour of thin steel shells with corrugations made of mild steel plates under compression is investigated using finite element software ABAQUS. The corrugated sections and the conventional sections under study are having the same area of cross section. For the corrugated sections, trapezoidal profile was used with corrugation angle ranging from 30 degree to 90 degree. Influence of corrugation height on the characteristics of corrugated section is also studied. In axial compression, corrugated steel section exhibited 1.5 to 2 times the load carrying capacity of conventional steel section. The load carrying capacity was found to be increasing with increasing corrugation angle as well as with increasing corrugation height. It has been also observed that slender members are more sensitive to changes in corrugation profile.