Application of corrugated plates as the web of steel coupling beams

Nowadays, steel coupling beams are used as an efficient alternative to reinforced concrete (RC) coupling beams. Particularly in the coupled shear walls system, coupling beams are the main members for dissipating seismic energy. In this paper, for the first time the application of corrugated plates as the web of steel coupling beams (rather than flat web and its stiffeners) is studied as a proposition for improving seismic behavior of such beams. The study addresses the linear elastic buckling analysis and non-linear analysis of steel coupling beams with flat and corrugated webs using finite element technique for which ANSYS software is employed. 160 models have been studied, considering parameters such as shape of web plate (flat and three corrugated types, including trapezoidal, curved, and zigzag), web thickness, number of corrugations, and corrugation angle. The finite element results are validated through comparison with the experimental results of a common steel coupling beam, tested by other researchers. In addition to the advantages of eliminating web stiffeners, results of this study show that the application of corrugated web with the proposed geometric criteria makes it possible to achieve further rotation capacity in comparison with common steel coupling beams. Finally, a design approach for corrugated web of steel coupling beams, accompanied by a practical example, is presented. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.