LAUSR

Abstract In composite structures, the strength of different material can be fully taken advantage of due to the composite effect. In steel-encased concrete-infilled composite structures, steel plates are restrained unilaterally by infilled concrete. The contact buckling mode of steel plates differs from the bilateral buckling mode, and the buckling load is improved. Compared with flat-plates, corrugated-plates have greater out-of-plane stiffness and even larger buckling load restrained by a rigid medium and the shear connectors between them. This paper focuses on the compressive buckling behaviour of corrugated-plates in contact with a rigid medium, taking into consideration the influences of geometrical parameters and shear connector arrangement. First, through finite element (FE) analysis and theoretical derivation, we propose the bilateral and contact buckling loads of corrugated-plates. Then, based on the buckling analysis, the FE model considering material and geometrical nonlinearity is developed to investigate the load resistance of corrugated-plates and validated by existing experimental results. According to the numerical results, we propose the design formulas of the strength reduction factor of corrugated-plates and the upper limit of the normalized slenderness ratio for compact sections. The design formulas can further provide fundamental for the stability design of corrugated-plates under compression and bending moment.