Finite Element Analysis and Design Models for Composite Action in Stainless Steel Concrete Corrugated I-Girder Bridges

Abstract

Using stainless steel corrugated web I-girders in steel-concrete composite bridges has made it possible to achieve greater sustainability than the conventional designs since stainless steel has a lower life cycle cost and the corrugation reduces the amount of needed material. The composite action in the innovative design concept needs performance assessment, therefore a literature study has been carried out to review the existing design models for steel-concrete composite bridges and to examine their application in the case using corrugation and stainless steel. In addition, the composite action using stainless steel has been modeled, analyzed, and compared with carbon steel by using ABAQUS software in order to study the nonlinearities effects due to the used materials, geometries, and boundary conditions. Although the results showed that corrugation will contribute to a reduced flexural capacity and increase the ductility of composite cross-section, meanwhile stainless steel could sustain a higher flexural capacity due to its remarkable strain hardening.