Front. Struct. Civ. Eng.

2020, 14(4): 930–946

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-020-0652-1

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Experimental, analytical and numerical studies on

concrete encased trapezoidally web profiled
cold-formed steel beams by varying
depth-thickness ratio
Divahar RAVIa* , Aravind Raj PONSUBBIAHa, Sangeetha Sreekumar PRABHAa, Joanna Philip SARATHAb
a
Department of Civil Engineering, Aarupadai Veedu Institute of Technology, Chennai 603104, India
b
Department of Civil Engineering, Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science, Chennai 603103, India
*
Corresponding author. E-mails: divahar.civil@avit.ac.in; divaharmr@gmail.com

© Higher Education Press 2020

ABSTRACT Concrete encased with trapezoidally corrugated web profiled cold-formed steel beams are used
worldwide to improve resistance toward fire and corrosion, higher load carrying capacity as well as significant increase in
the bending stiffness by encasing concrete on the beam portion. The present work gives a detailed description on the
experimental, analytical and numerical investigation on the flexural behavior of concrete encased trapezoidally corrugated
web profiled cold-formed steel beams which were simply supported at both ends and subjected to two point symmetric
loading. The flexural behavior of such structure has been experimentally tested to failure under pure bending. To find the
effect of concrete encasement in the web, 12 experiments were conducted by two different series. Beams having three
different web corrugation angles of 0°, 30°, and 45° with two different web depth-thickness (dw/tw) ratios of 60 and 80
were tested. Experimental results such as load-deflection relationship, ultimate capacity, load-strain relationship, moment-
curvature curves, ductility and failure mode indices of the specimens are presented. From the static bending tests the
concrete encased trapezoidally corrugated web beam showed improved moment carrying capacity, ductility behavior and
the resistance to transverse deflections in comparison to concrete encased with plain web beam. Especially for the beams
with concrete encased 30° trapezoidally corrugated web having (dw/tw) ratio 60 and 80, the loading capacity was
improved about 54% and 67.3% and the ductility also increased about 1.6 and 3.6 times, when compared to concrete
encased beams with plain web. This research should contribute to the future engineering applications on seismic resistant
structures and efficient usage of concrete encased with cold-formed steel beams by exhibiting its super elasto-plastic
property. The analytical and numerical results showed good agreement with the experimental results at yield load, which
indicates that the proposed analytical equations can be applied in predicting flexural strength accurately for such concrete
encased trapezoidally corrugated web profiled cold-formed steel beams.

KEYWORDS concrete encased beam, trapezoidally corrugated web, loading capacity, super elasto-plastic

1 Introduction
Two types of structural steel member’s namely hot-rolled
sections and cold-formed sections are being used in the
construction industry. Use of hot rolled steel sections in
structures is widely used in construction industry. But in
case of light and moderate loaded structures as well as for
Article history: Received Aug 23, 2019; Accepted Oct 28, 2019
the members with short span lengths, the utilization of hot
rolled steel members leads to overloading and unecono-
mical. To overcome this flaw, a new form of steel known as
cold-formed section has come into rehearsal. Cold-formed
members are traditionally used as secondary bearing
members such as purlins for lightly loaded roofs. Since
1990, there is an increasing use of cold-formed steel
sections as primary bearing members in low to medium
rise buildings.
 Divahar RAVI et al. Studies on encased trapezoidally web profile CFSB
Built-up beam is a beam with corrugated web and flange
plates. The loss of stability of the web before reaching the
plastic limit will be avoided by the profiles of web. When
the beam length exceeds a given threshold value, the
corrugated web becomes unstable and tends to buckle
laterally. But, corrugated web encased with concrete could
be used as an effective lateral restraint. Engineers have
understood that webs with corrugation extremely intensify
their stability against local buckling and thus their
efficiency in structural design is optimized. Therefore,
the web corrugation acts as the replacement for the web
stiffeners. Furthermore, the significant cost reduction is
accompanied by using thinner web, which could save the
cost up to 30% while compared with webs with and
without stiffeners [1].
The use of encased beam in buildings will increase its
moment carrying capacity and ductility of the composite
construction. When a steel beam is encased with concrete
in the web portion throughout the entire length, it is called
beam with encased web. The concrete between the flange
of the beam results in several advantages, such as corrosion
resistance, high fire resistance and high load carrying
capacity, as well as a significant increase in the bending
stiffness compared to a normal steel beam. Therefore, it is
recommended that concrete must be poured ahead the
corrugated web profile mutually low yield strength or
minimum thickness to avoid buckling occurrence earlier
than yielding of steel web by He et al. [2].
Shao and Wang [3] studied the behavior of novel type of
I-girder which composed of a flat-plate flange, a concrete-
filled tubular flange with a corrugated web. It was
established that, the conventional I-girder which failed
by global buckling and the girder having concrete-filled
tubular flange using a corrugated web had improved huge
bending and torsional stiffness. Nonlinear finite element
analysis were carried out to find out the performance of
bridge girders by the whole of corrugated webs withstand
to fatigue loading by Ibrahim et al. [4]. It was found that
the fatigue life of bridge girders by the whole of
trapezoidally corrugated webs were more than the
conventionally stiffened plate girders.
Abbas et al. [5,6] extended a theoretical expression of
the linear elastic bending performance of girder with
Fig. 1 Web corrugation profile.
931
corrugated web subjected to static symmetric loads and
concluded that the theoretical results showed very good
agreement with the experimental results. Chan et al. [7]
and Khalid et al. [8] investigated the beams with plain web,
horizontally and vertically corrugated webs by finite
element package and it was observed that webs with
vertical corrugation has superior flexural capacity than
those mutually plain and horizontally corrugated webs.
Pasternak and Kubieniec [9] carried out experimental
investigation on girders with sinusoidally corrugated webs
and it was establish that the failure due to web buckling
was prevented by the sinusoidal corrugation.
Several research on the behavior of trapezoidally
corrugated web profiled hot-rolled steel beams under
shear has been done: analytically, experimentally and
numerically [10–12], to investigate the shear carrying
capacity and they have concluded that their carrying shear
capacity from corrugated web gives a better prediction than
plain web. Figure 1 shows the profile of trapezoidally
corrugated web. He et al. [13] carried out the analytical and
experimental investigation on the flexure behavior of
composite I-girder with concrete encased corrugated web
under hogging moment. It was found that the bending
strength at ultimate and ductility were improved virtually
20% and 3 times, respectively, in concrete encased I-girder
corrugated steel. Divahar and Joanna [14–17] investigated
the comparison between plain web, corrugated web and
encased corrugated web and it was found that the encased
corrugated web shows relatively good performance.
Recently, Ungureanu and Dubina [1] has carried out an
experiment on studying the performance of built-up beams
by a trapezoidally corrugated cold-formed profiled steel
web back-to-back channel section. It was found that the
beam capacity was almost similar, but for deeper
corrugation, the deflection increased with reduction in
stiffness.
Literature studies claim a large number of investigations
on the behavior of trapezoidally corrugated web profiled
hot-rolled steel beams under flexure [3,13,18–20] and
shear [2,10–12,21,22]. But literatures related to the study
on concrete encased trapezoidally corrugated web profiled
cold-formed steel beams web under flexure is limited. To
arrive at a better understanding of the level of uncertainty
932 Front. Struct. Civ. Eng. 2020, 14(4): 930–946
associated with the actual experimental observations,
numerical models representing the material properties
and structural configuration of the experimental conditions
simulated using ANSYS workbench and the proposed
analytical equations that demonstrates the boundary
conditions and respective behavior of the system were
developed and used to validate.
In this context, this paper presents an experimental,
analytical and numerical study on the bending behavior of
concrete encased trapezoidally corrugated web profiled
cold-formed steel beams by varying the depth-thickness
(dw/tw) ratio.
2 Experimental investigation
2.1 Test specimens
Three series of different specimens were fabricated and the
behavior by testing under pure bending with simply
supported end condition. One is a conventional concrete
encased cold-formed steel beam having plain web with
flat-plate flanges (EPWB) and the other two are concrete
beams encased trapezoidally corrugated web having 30°
and 45° corrugations angles with flat-plate flanges (ECWB
30° and ECWB 45°), respectively. The cross sections
specimens were 150 mm
100 mm
2.5 mm and
200 mm
100 mm
2.5 mm with 2 m span. Flanges and
web were connected by intermittent welds of 4 mm thick at
the nodal points. To prevent the bearing failure at the
loading point, stiffeners of 2.5 mm thick were provided at
the loading points and at supports. Three layers of concrete
was placed in the web portion, each layer was vibrated
using needle vibrator. After that the surface of the paste
was smoothed with a trowel and cured in a water for 28 d
by wet gunny bags. The concreting was done on one side
of beam and left to set for one day and the similar
procedure was followed for the other side of beam.
The material properties of the concrete and cold-formed
steel were all obtained from standard tests before the static
flexural tests were carried out. For the cold-formed steel
material, tension test was conducted according to ASTM
370 [23] standards. The common values of tensile stress fu,
the yield stress fy and the modulus of elasticity E, are
shown in Table 1. For the concrete material M30 grade was
used, its compressive strength tests was measured at
different ages as per the procedure specified in IS:516-
1959 [24] and the measured value fck is 31 MPa with a mix
ratio of 1:1.86:3.07 (cement: FA: CA) with w/c ratio of
0.40. The detailed configuration of the specimens are
Table 1 Material properties of coupons
members thickness (mm) fy (MPa) fu (MPa) E (GPa)
flanges 2.5 422 503 201.0
stiffeners 2.5 419 500 199.6
webs 2.5 404 482 192.4
shown in Fig. 2.
2.2 Test instrumentation
The test set-up for the experiment was shown in Fig. 3. The
flexural strength of the invented specimens was measured
according to the ASTM specifications using 40 tones
capacity hydraulic jack includes a loading frame. The load
was applied at the rate of 2 kN/min until the ultimate
failure of the specimens. The hydraulic jack is located
above the mid-span of axis of the specimens, and so that a
beam is subjected to point loading. The applied loads were
monitored using a load cell and loading beam transferred
two-point loads at L/3 distance from the supports. To avoid
the lateral deflection and tilting of the specimen, lateral
clamping of web was obligated at the supports of the
specimen. The beams were tested roller support at the right
end and hinged support at left end having an effective span
of 1.8 m.
2.3 Results and discussions
2.3.1 Load-deflection relationship
As seen in Fig. 3, six LVDTs are used to measure the
deflection at some critical positions. Figures 4, 5(a)–5(f)
show the load-deflection development at 5 places of the
bottom flange with the increase of the concentrated load.
For the beams with 150 mm depth (dw/tw = 60), the average
load carrying capacity for the specimens with plain web
EPWB 0° has failed at 46 kN with an average vertical
deflection of 20 mm. Similarly, the average load carrying
capacity for other two specimens with corrugated web
ECWB 30° and ECWB 45° was failed at 60.7 and 57 kN.
The measured ultimate load of the specimens ECWB 30° is
100.2 kN was slightly larger than the specimens ECWB
45° is 99.9 kN and the average vertical deflection of the
specimens ECWB 30° is 45.2 mm slightly smaller than the
specimens ECWB 45° is 45.95 mm. Correspondingly, for
the beams with 200 mm depth (dw/tw = 80), the average
load carrying capacity of encased plain web specimens
EPWB 0° was failed at 68.65 kN with an average vertical
deflection of 21.5 mm. Similarly, the average load carrying
capacity for other two specimens with corrugated
web ECWB 30° and ECWB 45° was failed at 74.65 and
72.55 kN. The measured ultimate load of the specimens
ECWB 30° is 114.85 kN slightly larger than the specimens
ECWB 45° is 111.95 kN and the average vertical
deflection of the specimens ECWB30° is 45.5 mm slightly
smaller than the specimens ECWB 45° is 47.15 mm. It is
observed that the specimens with ECWB 30° was having
slightly larger load carrying capacity with smaller deflec-
tion when compared other specimens ECWB 0° and
ECWB 4°. The confinement from corrugated profile and
concrete is good, shall can increase in strength of the
ECWB 30° and ECWB 45° specimens.
 Divahar RAVI et al. Studies on encased trapezoidally web profile CFSB 933

Fig. 2 Details of beams with trapezoidally corrugated web.

Fig. 3 Details of test setup for the trapezoidally corrugated web beams.

2.3.2 Ultimate capacity of the specimens
Ultimate load carrying capacity with corresponding
maximum deflection of tested specimens is given in
Table 2. The measured ultimate load of the specimens
ECWB 30° is slightly higher than the specimens ECWB
45° and the average vertical deflection of the specimens
ECWB 30° is slightly smaller than the specimens ECWB
45°. The beams with dw/tw = 60 (150 mm depth), the
loading capacity of the specimens ECWB 30° is 1% more
than the specimens ECWB 45° and it is 54% additional
than the specimens EPWB 0°.
934 Front. Struct. Civ. Eng. 2020, 14(4): 930–946

Fig. 4 Load-deflection curves (dw/tw = 60): (a) Specimen EPWB 0°-1; (b) Specimen EPWB 0°-2; (c) Specimen ECWB 30°-1; (d)
Specimen ECWB 30°-2; (e) Specimen ECWB 45°-1; (f) Specimen ECWB 45°-2.

Fig. 5 Load-deflection curves (dw/tw = 80): (a) Specimen EPWB 0°-1; (b) Specimen EPWB 0°-2; (c) Specimen ECWB 30°-1; (d)
Specimen ECWB 30°-2; (e) Specimen ECWB 45°-1; (f) Specimen ECWB 45°-2.

Correspondingly, for the beams with dw/tw = 80
(200 mm depth), the loading capacity of the specimens
ECWB 30° is 2.5% more than the specimens ECWB 45°
and it is 67.3% additional than the specimens EPWB 0°.
Figure 6 shows the ultimate load against central deflection
of the EPWB 0°, ECWB 30°, and ECWB 45° specimens.
It is observed from the Fig. 6 that 30° encased
corrugated web specimens with 200 mm depth have
performed well and shows higher load carrying capacity as
well as super elasto-plastic of encased corrugated web
beams increases utility of it in the earthquake resistant
design of building structures.
 Divahar RAVI et al. Studies on encased trapezoidally web profile CFSB 935

Table 2 Ultimate capacity of the beams

specimens load at ultimate (kN) maximum deflection (mm) average ultimate load (kN) increase with respect to EPWB 0° (%)
EPWB 0°, 150-1 45.00 19.90 46.00 –
EPWB 0°, 150-2 47.00 20.10
ECWB 30°, 150-1 98.30 45.10 100.20 54.00
ECWB 30°, 150-2 102.10 45.20
ECWB 45°, 150-1 99.00 45.80 99.90 53.90
ECWB 45°, 150-2 100.80 46.10
EPWB 0°, 200-1 67.50 21.00 68.65 –
EPWB 0°, 200-2 69.80 22.00
ECWB 30°, 200-1 114.30 48.00 114.85 67.30
ECWB 30°, 200-2 115.40 43.00
ECWB 45°, 200-1 112.60 47.30 111.95 63.00
ECWB 45°, 200-2 111.30 47.00

corrugated web it varies from 2444µ to 2467µ and

3157µ to 3175µ similarly and for the beams with 45°
corrugated web it varies from 2347µ to 2401µ and 3047µ
to 3101µ, respectively. Table 3 shows the summary of
compressive and tensile strain for the encased beam
specimens. It is observed that the ECWB 30° and ECWB
45° specimens has higher longitudinal compressive strain
when comparison to the EPWB 0° specimens.

2.3.4 Ductility

The structure undergoes large deflection with losing its

Fig. 6 Ultimate load versus central deflection.
2.3.3 Load-strain behavior of the specimens
Figures 7, 8, and 9 show the load-strain curves and
comparison of load-strain relationship for the EPWB 0°,
ECWB 30°, and ECWB 45° specimens. The beams having
150 mm depth (dw/tw = 60), the measured maximum strain
value in the bottom surface and top surface for the beam
with plain web at ultimate load varies from 880µ (µ = 10–6)
to 900µ and 868µ to 910µ correspondingly and for the
beams with 30° corrugated web it varies from 2055µ to
2992µ and 2539µ to 2566µ similarly and for the beams
with 45° corrugated web it varies from 2201µ to 2240µ
and 2587µ to 2597µ, respectively.
Correspondingly, for the beams having 200 mm depth
(dw/tw = 80), the measured maximum strain value in the
bottom surface and top surface for the beam with plain web
at ultimate load varies from 1382µ to 1406µ and 1638µ to
1560µ correspondingly and for the beams with 30°
strength is called ductility. Ductility (µD) is measured in
terms of ductility factor which is expressed as the ratio of
‘displacement at ultimate load’ (Δu) to the ‘displacement at
yield load’ (Δy). The ultimate load is taken as the 80% of
the peak load.
Table 4 shows the average ductility ratio (
D) of the
specimens. The beams with 150 mm depth (dw/tw = 60),
the EPWB 0° and ECWB 45° specimens recorded an
average ductility ratio of 4.72 and 7.07, while the ECWB
30° specimens recorded an average ductility ratio of 7.60
which is nearly 1.6 and 1.075 times more than the
EPWB 0° and ECWB 45°. Correspondingly, for the beams
having 200 mm depth (dw/tw = 80), the EPWB 0° and
ECWB 45° specimens recorded an average ductility ratio
of 2.42 and 8.42, while the ECWB 30° specimens recorded
an average ductility ratio of 8.71 which is nearly 3.6 and
1.035 times more than the EPWB 0° and ECWB 45°.
This increase in ductility shows higher ductility of the
concrete encased trapezoidally corrugated web profiled
cold-formed steel beams can be attributed to the confine-
ment provided to the concrete by the corrugated profile and
it is found that the concrete encased trapezoidally
corrugated web profiled cold-formed steel beams behaved
in a ductile manner when compared with concrete encased
plain web profiled cold-formed steel beams.
Fig. 7 Load-strain curves (dw/tw = 60): (a) Specimen EPWB 0°-1; (b) Specimen EPWB 0°-2; (c) Specimen ECWB 30°-1; (d) Specimen
ECWB 30°-2; (e) Specimen ECWB 45°-1; (f) Specimen ECWB 45°-2.

Fig. 8 Load-strain curves (dw/tw = 80): (a) Specimen EPWB 0°-1; (b) Specimen EPWB 0°-2; (c) Specimen ECWB 30°-1; (d) Specimen
ECWB 30°-2; (e) Specimen ECWB 45°-1; (f) Specimen ECWB 45°-2.
 Divahar RAVI et al. Studies on encased trapezoidally web profile CFSB 937

Fig. 9 Comparison of load-strain curves for the beams: (a) load-strain curves (dw/tw = 60); (b) load-strain curves (dw/tw = 80).

2.3.5 Behavior and failure mechanism EPWB 0°, ECWB 30°, and ECWB 45° failed due to
flexural stress in concrete. The specimens experienced
Figures 10 and 11 shows the failure pattern of all the test crack initiated from soffit. Most of the cracks were
specimens. It was observed that all the specimens observed in between the two-point loading region and

Fig. 10 Failure mechanism of the beams (dw/tw = 60): (a) Fig. 11 Failure mechanism of the beams (dw/tw = 80): (a)
Specimen EPWB 0°, 1 and 2; (b) Specimen ECWB 30°, 1 and 2; Specimen EPWB 0°, 1 and 2; (b) Specimen ECWB 30°, 1 and 2;
(c) Specimen ECWB 45°, 1 and 2. (c) Specimen ECWB 45°, 1 and 2.
938 Front. Struct. Civ. Eng. 2020, 14(4): 930–946

Table 3 Compressive and tensile strain for the encased beams

specimens ultimate load (kN) tensile strain (
10–6) compressive strain (
10–6)
EPWB 0°, 150-1 45.00 880 868
EPWB 0°, 150-2 47.00 900 910
ECWB 30°, 150-1 98.30 2055 2539
ECWB 30°, 150-2 102.10 2992 2566
ECWB 45°, 150-1 99.00 2201 2587
ECWB 45°, 150-2 100.80 2240 2597
EPWB 0°, 200-1 67.50 1382 1638
EPWB 0°, 200-2 69.80 1406 1560
ECWB 30°, 200-1 114.30 2444 3157
ECWB 30°, 200-2 115.40 2467 3175
ECWB 45°, 200-1 112.60 2347 3047
ECWB 45°, 200-2 111.30 2401 3101

Table 4 Average ductility ratio of the beams

specimens Dy (mm) Du (mm) µD
D
EPWB 0°, 150-1 5.10 26.90 5.27 4.72
EPWB 0°, 150-2 6.50 27.10 4.17
ECWB 30°, 150-1 5.80 45.10 7.70 7.60
ECWB 30°, 150-2 6.00 45.30 7.50
ECWB 45°, 150-1 6.30 45.80 7.27 7.07
ECWB 45°, 150-2 6.70 46.10 6.88
EPWB 0°, 200-1 9.90 24.00 2.42 2.42
EPWB 0°, 200-2 10.10 24.50 2.43
ECWB 30°, 200-1 5.20 48.00 9.23 8.71
ECWB 30°, 200-2 5.80 47.50 8.19
ECWB 45°, 200-1 5.20 43.00 8.27 8.42
ECWB 45°, 200-2 5.00 42.80 8.56

few cracks were also formed near the supports. The
propagation of cracks can be modeled and further observed
in future work by using the phase field model by Zhou
et al. [25–29].
3 Analytical study
3.1 Flexural capacity and deflection of concrete encased
plain web profiled cold-formed steel beams
The flexural strength is stress at failure in bending. It
represents the highest stress experienced within the
material at its moment of yield. Concrete encasing
prevented local as well as overall buckling of cold formed
steel, which ensure by improving flexural bending capacity
of section and the ductility. Based on experimental results
of the concrete encased web some assumptions are
proposed for analytical model to predict bending moment.
1) The flange attains its yield stress at the ultimate state.
2) The cold-formed steel web and the encased concrete
acts monolithically and thus the compressive strain along
the height of the web reduces linearly.
3) The contribution of cracked concrete in tension to
flexure strength is ignored when the tensile strength up to
crack resistance.
Figure 12 shows the analysis loading of pure bending
and notations for materials plastic section.
The flexural capacity (Pyield )and maximum deflection
(δ) of concrete encased plain web profiled cold-formed
steel beams subjected to pure bending is given by,
6Mpl
Pyield ¼ , (1)
Lef f
 Divahar RAVI et al. Studies on encased trapezoidally web profile CFSB 939

2fya tw ð0:5h1 – epl Þ2 Ibottom   f lange ¼ ICG þ A3 h23 , (6d)

Mpl ¼ Mpl,a –
2

½bf tf yf þ ðhw =2Þtw yw 
þ βR 2b1 epl 0:5epl þ 0:5h1 – epl , (2a) ycosec ¼ , (7a)
½bf tf þ ðhw =2Þtw 
fy I z
Mpl,a ¼ , (2b) hw
y yf ¼ , (7b)
2
fy hw
fya ¼ , (2c) yw ¼ , (7c)
γw 4
where Mpl and Mpl,a represent the plastic moment and full
2fya tw ðh1 =2Þ
epl ¼ , (2d) plastic moment of the steel section, respectively, epl, fya,
2fya tw þ 2b1 βR and βR are the geometric properties according to the plastic
compressive zone, design strength of steel and concrete; fy,
βR ¼ fck =γw , (2e) fck and are the yield stress of steel, grade of concrete and
the partial safety factors for steel and concrete, respec-
Iz ¼ Iza þ Izc   red , (3) tively. Iz, Izc, Izc red and Iza is the moment of inertia of
composed section, moment of inertia with respect to
centroid, reduced moment of inertia of concrete, moment
BD3 – bd 3
Iza ¼ , (4a) of inertia of steel for plain and corrugated web is given by
12 Eqs. (5) and (6a). Es and Ec is the modulus of elasticity of
steel and concrete; Leff is the effective span of the
Ec specimens; y is the center of gravity of the specimen for
Izc   red ¼ Izc : , (4b)
Es plain web and corrugated web is taken as D/2 and Eq. (7a),
respectively. The values corrugation details α, a, b, c, d, tw
ðb – tw Þ3 and L are describe in Fig. 1.
Izc ¼ epl , (4c) The flexure capacity Pyield can be evaluated in the
12
following steps.
Pa  2  Step 1: Determining the moment of inertia of encased
δ¼ 3L – 4a2 : (5) section Iz based on the material properties by Eq. (3).
48EI
Step 2: Computing Mpl,a based on the yield strength of
steel, moment of inertia and center of gravity by Eq. (2b).
3.1.1 Flexure capacity of concrete encased trapezoidally Step 3: Obtaining the Mpl based on the plastic moment
corrugated web profiled cold-formed steel beams of inertia, geometric properties according to the plastic
compressive zone, design strength of steel and concrete by
The flexural capacity of concrete encased trapezoidally Eq. (2a).
corrugated web profiled cold-formed steel beams subjected Step 4: Calculating the flexural capacity Pyield by
to pure bending is given by Eqs. (1a)–(1c), (2a)–(2e), (3), Eq. (1) in which Mpl is given by Eqs. (2a) and (2b).
(4b), (4c) are similar like the section with concrete encased Step 5: The maximum deflection can be calculated by
plain web. Calculating the moment of inertia for the flexural capacity Pyield by Eq. (1), moment of inertia of
corrugated web steel section Iza, Itop flange and by Eqs. encased section Iz based on the material properties by
(6a)–(6c) and Eqs. (7a)–(7c) are used the computing the Eq. (3), Es is the modulus of elasticity of steel, and a is the
center of gravity (y) for corrugated web. The description of 1/3 distance of the effective span.
corrugation details and centroid for corrugated web as
shown in Fig. 13.
4 Numerical study
Iza ¼ Itop  f lange þ Iweb þ Ibottom   f lange , (6a)
4.1 Finite element model
Itop  f lange ¼ ICG þ A1 h21 , (6b)
The test specimens were modeled/simulated using the FEA
  2    software, ANSYS. The maximum deformation and the
hr tw h3r
Iweb ¼ 2btw þ , (6c) ultimate load of the concrete encased plain and trapezoid-
2 6sinf ally corrugated web profiled cold-formed steel beams were
940 Front. Struct. Civ. Eng. 2020, 14(4): 930–946
Fig. 12 Analysis loading under pure bending and notation for
materials plastic section.
Fig. 13 Description of corrugation details and centroid for
corrugated web.
from the analytical model. The models were simulated
under experimental testing conditions like simply sup-
ported at the ends and one third loading. Obtained
analytical results were compared with the experimental
values. Displacement boundary conditions were assigned
similar to the experimental set up so as to constrain the
model to get a unique solution. The ends of the beams are
restrained against displacement in vertical axis, whereas
only one end is restrained against displacement in the
horizontal axis. Also, at the support, the beams are not
restrained against rotation on the axis perpendicular to the
plane of the beam.
4.2 Modeling and loading
The Modeling of each specimen was carried out in three
dimensions by using ANSYS Workbench software. 3D
solid (SOLID 186) bodies with the hexahedral shape
element were chosen to model the trapezoidally corrugated
web profiled cold-formed steel beams and 3D solid
(SOLID 65) element was used to simulate the concrete.
The element can degenerate by combining some of nodes,
to a tetrahedron, triangle or quadrilateral pyramid [30–38].
Figure 14 shows the 3D Solid Bodies. As per ASTM 370
[23] standards coupon test were conducted to obtain the
yield strength and modulus of elasticity of the material
properties are given in Table 1.
4.3 Constitutive model for concrete and steel
Concrete in the encased beam has been Modeled as M30
grade concrete using ANSYS Workbench. The nonlinear
model is adopted for the relationship between the stress (fc)
and strain (εc) of concrete in compression as shown in
Fig. 15. As per IS:516:1959 [24], compressive strength
tests were conducted on specimens at different ages and
the measured values are obtained. The modulus of
elasticity of concrete Ec = 27.84 GPa, Ultimate static
compressive strength of concrete fck = 31 MPa, mass
density = 2400 kg/m3, and Poisson’s ratio v = 0.2 has mean
considered. The ultimate concrete strain εcu is set at 0.004,
considering the confined effect of the concrete encasement.
The assumed stress-strain curve of steel is shown in
Fig. 16. The stress- strain relation of steel is assumed to be
a bilinear curve including the stain hardening effect on the
both tension and compression side. As per ASTM 370
standards, coupon test was conducted to obtain the tensile
strength, yield strength and modulus of elasticity of the
material properties are given in Table 1.
4.4 Meshing the Geometry
Figure 17 shows the meshing of the concrete encased plain
and trapezoidally corrugated web profiled cold-formed
steel beams. After model creation, the most important step
is meshing. Meshing a 3D solid body with SOLID 186,
SOLID 65 and a 3D 20-node second-order structural solid
element. ANSYS Meshing is automatically integrated with
 Divahar RAVI et al. Studies on encased trapezoidally web profile CFSB 941

Fig. 14 3D solid bodies.

4.5 Numerical verification by experimental results

The deflected shape and load-deflection relationships of all

the test specimens which were obtained from experimental
and predicted by numerical are shown in Figs. 18(a)–18(f).
The experimental investigation outputs are given as the
input for the numerical investigation and it was observed
that the deflections at the failure state corresponding to the
maximum load in the numerical failure model are similar
to the experimental results. Tables 5 and 6 lists the
comparison of yield load and maximum deflection results
from the experimental, analytical and numerical investiga-
tion on concrete encased plain and trapezoidally corru-
gated web profiled cold-formed steel beams. The yield load
Fig. 15 Stress-strain curve of concrete. and maximum deflection predicted by numerical models
agree well with that obtained from the experiments, in both
failure modes and load-deflection curves.
The flexural strength for the concrete encased trape-
zoidally corrugated web profiled cold-formed steel beams
has been carried out by experimental, analytical and
numerical. Very good agreement between numerical,
analytical and experimental ones at yield load have been
obtained, in both load-displacement curves and failure
mode. Which means the proposed analytical equations and
numerical analysis can be applied in predict flexural
strength accurately for such concrete encased trapezoidally
corrugated web profiled cold-formed steel beams.

Fig. 16 Stress-strain curve of steel.
each solver within the ANSYS Workbench environment.
The optimum mesh quantity is chosen by the solver of the
Workbench using ‘smart size’ option and the mesh
refinement is chosen as size 4 by Sangeetha and Aravind
Raj [39].
5 Parametric analysis
5.1 Concrete encased trapezoidally web profiled cold
formed steel beams
A series of experimental, analytical and FE models were
performed in the parametric study to examine the effects of
corrugated web with different corrugated angles (0°, 30°,
942 Front. Struct. Civ. Eng. 2020, 14(4): 930–946

Fig. 17 Beam with plain web and trapezoidally corrugated web.

Table 5 Comparison of experimental, analytical and numerical calculated yield load

Sl. no. specimens yield load (kN)
experimental analytical values numerical values PExp/PAns PAns/PNum PNum/PExp
values (PExp) (PAns) (PNum)
1 EPWB 0°, 150 45.00 51.60 46.00 0.87 1.12 1.02
2 ECWB 30°, 150 60.70 62.50 65.00 0.97 0.96 1.07
3 ECWB 45°, 150 57.00 58.00 62.00 0.98 0.93 1.09
4 EPWB 0°, 200 68.65 64.00 71.00 1.07 0.9 1.03
5 ECWB 30°, 200 74.65 73.20 77.00 1.02 0.95 1.03
6 ECWB 45°, 200 72.55 72.60 75.00 0.99 0.97 1.03
mean 0.98 0.97 1.04

Table 6 Comparison of experimental, analytical and numerical calculated deflection

Sl. no. specimens deflection (mm)
experimental analytical values numerical values PExp/PAns PAns/PNum PNum/PExp
values (PExp) (PAns) (PNum)
1 EPWB 0°, 150 8.50 7.37 9.75 1.15 0.75 1.15
2 ECWB 30°, 150 6.00 8.00 7.17 0.75 1.12 1.20
3 ECWB 45°, 150 6.30 8.04 7.60 0.78 1.06 1.20
4 EPWB 0°, 200 10.10 9.76 9.00 1.03 1.08 0.89
5 ECWB 30°, 200 5.80 6.50 6.00 0.89 1.08 1.03
6 ECWB 45°, 200 5.80 6.94 5.46 0.84 1.27 0.94
mean 0.91 1.06 1.07

and 45°), varying depth of specimens (150 and 200 mm)
and two different web depth-thickness (dw/tw) ratio (60 and
80).
5.1.1 Effect of trapezoidally web profiled
To determine the effect of trapezoidally web profiled, three
series of different specimens were fabricated and tested
EPWB, ECWB 30°, and ECWB 45°, respectively. The
flexural experiments show that the ECWB 30° and ECWB
45° specimens has a higher load carrying capacity than the
EPWB 0° specimens. Since confinement from corrugated
profile and concrete is good, which increases the effective
strength of concrete.
Divahar RAVI et al. Studies on encased trapezoidally web profile CFSB 943
944 Front. Struct. Civ. Eng. 2020, 14(4): 930–946

Fig. 18 Deflection shape and comparison on the load-deflection relationship obtained using experimental with numerically: (a)
Specimen EPWB 0°, 150 mm depth; (b) Specimen ECWB 30°, 150 mm depth; (c) Specimen ECWB 45°, 150 mm depth; (d) Specimen
EPWB 0°, 200 mm depth; (e) Specimen ECWB 30°, 200 mm depth; (f) Specimen ECWB 45°, 200 mm depth.
 Divahar RAVI et al. Studies on encased trapezoidally web profile CFSB
5.1.2 Effect of corrugation angle
Three different corrugation angles α (0°, 30°, and 45°)
were considered as shown in Table 2. The specimens
ECWB 30° has higher resisting moment due to which it
was failed by local flange buckling alone not due to shear.
Moreover, the ECWB 30° specimens increases the load
carrying capacity, increased longitudinal compressive
strain and higher ductility under bending.
5.1.3 Effect of depth of web
Two varying depth of the web (dw) at 150 and 200 mm
were also investigated. It can be observed that the yield
load and maximum deflection is in linear proportion to the
depth of web. Increase of the web depth will improves not
only the flexure strength but also ductility.
5.1.4 Effect of different web depth-thickness (dw/tw) ratio
Two different web depth-thickness (dw/tw) ratio (60 and
80). The ECWB 30° and ECWB 45° specimens having
(dw/tw) ratio 60 and 80 exhibited a ductility factor of 1.6
and 1.5 times and 3.6 and 3.5 times, when compared with
EPWB 0° specimens and the results also found that the
specimens ECWB 30° and ECWB 45° has more ductility.
5.1.5 Effect of with and without concrete encased
trapezoidally corrugated web
Displacement ductility of trapezoidally corrugated beams
without concrete encased with 30° and 45° corrugated
webs are less than the specimens having without concrete
encased plain web by Divahar and Joanna [40]. Moreover,
when compared with the specimens with concrete encased
trapezoidally corrugated web it increases dramatically.
This increase in ductility shows higher ductility of the
concrete encased trapezoidally corrugated web profiled
cold-formed steel beams can be attributed to the confine-
ment provided to the concrete by the corrugated profile and
it was observed that the concrete encased trapezoidally
corrugated web profiled cold-formed steel beams has more
ductility when compared with concrete encased plain web
profiled cold-formed steel beams.
6 Conclusions
The bending behavior of EPWB 0°, ECWB 30°, and
ECWB 45° has been carried out under two-point
symmetric loading. The following conclusions were
made from the investigation.
1) The flexural experiments showed that the ECWB 30°
and ECWB 45° specimens has higher load carrying
capacity, higher longitudinal compressive strain and higher
945
ductility factor than the EPWB 0° specimens, since
confinement from corrugated profile and concrete is
good, strength of concrete was also increased and the
ductility of the beam has been improved.
2) It was also seen that the increase of depth of web (dw)
improved both ductility as well as moment carrying
capacity linearly. Increase of the web depth has improved
the flexural strength.
3) The ECWB 30° specimens provide more load
carrying capacity, increased longitudinal compressive
strain and higher ductility under bending and obtained
the super elasto-plastic of encased corrugated web beams
increases utility of it in the earthquake resistant design of
building structures.
4) It was found that the numerical and the analytical
flexural strengths values had good agreement with the
values obtained from the experimental results at yield load,
which means the proposed analytical equations and
numerical analysis can be applied to predict the flexural
strength accurately for such concrete encased trapezoidally
corrugated web profiled cold-formed steel beams.
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