International Journal of Fatigue 27 (2005) 373–381

www.elsevier.com/locate/ijfatigue

Fatigue of web-flange weld of corrugated web girders:

1. Influence of web corrugation geometry and flange geometry
on web-flange weld toe stresses
Kengo Anamia,1,*, Richard Sauseb,2, Hassan H. Abbasb,2
a
Department of Infrastructure Systems Engineering, Kochi University of Technology, Tosayamada-cho, Kochi 782-8502, Japan
b
ATLSS Center, Lehigh University, 117 ATLSS Drive, Bethlehem, PA 18105, USA
Received 10 March 2004; received in revised form 15 June 2004; accepted 6 August 2004

Abstract
The fatigue performance of the web-flange weld of steel girders with trapezoidal corrugated webs was examined experimentally, using
large-scale girder specimens, and analytically. The focus was on a region of constant bending moment. Fatigue cracks initiated at many
points along the inclined folds, and then propagated perpendicular to the principal stress direction. Propagation of cracks initiating near the
end of the inclined folds led to failure. Parametric FEM analyses indicated that the corrugation angle and the bend radius at the fold lines of
the corrugations are the parameters that most influence the stress at the web-flange weld toe.
q 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Corrugated web girders; Fatigue strength; Geometry effect; Stress concentration

1. Introduction
Girders with corrugated steel webs have been used in
several highway bridges in Europe and Japan. In many of
these bridges, the flanges are prestressed concrete. How-
ever, in some cases, it is beneficial to replace the concrete
flanges with steel flange plates. Fatigue of the web-flange
weld of corrugated web girders has not received much
research attention. Fatigue tests have shown that fatigue
failure initiates from this weld even when a concrete flange
is used and the steel flange plate is embedded in the concrete
flange [1]. Of course, concern for fatigue is greater, when
the flanges consist of steel plates alone. The fatigue strength
of steel girders with sinusoidal or trapezoidal corrugated
webs was experimentally investigated by several research-
ers [2–6]. However, the influences of the geometry of
* Corresponding author. Fax: C81 887 57 2420.
E-mail addresses: anami.kengo@kochi-tech.ac.jp (K. Anami),
rs0c@lehigh.edu (R. Sause), haa4@lehigh.edu (H.H. Abbas).
1
Formerly, Research Associate, ATLSS Center, Lehigh University, 117
ATLSS Drive, Bethlehem, PA 18105, USA.
2
Fax: C1 610 758 5902.
0142-1123/$ - see front matter q 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2004.08.006
the web corrugations and the geometry of the flange plate on
the stress conditions near the weld have not been studied
enough. This paper summarizes fatigue tests of corrugated
web girder (CWG) specimens and focuses on the stresses at
the web-flange weld that will influence the fatigue
performance of a CWG. Parametric FEM analyses show
the influence of the web and flange geometry on the stresses.
2. Specimen preparation
A typical specimen used in the fatigue tests is shown in
Fig. 1. The specimen is a large-scale I-shaped girder with a
trapezoidal corrugated web. The material used for the
corrugated web and flange plates is ASTM A709 grade
HPS-70 W. The flange plates had a measured yield strength
of 540 MPa and a tensile strength of 647 MPa. For the
corrugated web-flange weld, two types of weld process,
namely, semiautomatic gas metal arc welding (GMAW,
Type-A) and robotic GMAW (Type-B), were used to
examine the influence of ripples on the weld surface
that may occur using a semiautomatic welding process.
374 K. Anami et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 27 (2005) 373–381
Fig. 1. Geometry of CWG specimens (web depth is 1200 mm for Type-A
and 1150 mm for Type-B specimens).
After the fatigue tests of six specimens with Type-A welds
were completed, the bottom flanges and 50 mm of the webs
above the bottom flanges of two of the specimens were
removed and new bottom flanges were attached with Type-
B weld. As shown in Fig. 2, a nearly smooth weld surface is
observed in the Type-B specimens resulting in a rather
continuous weld toe line, while ripples in the weld surface
are observed in the Type-A specimens resulting in a
discontinuous weld toe line.
Fig. 3 shows the distribution of flange longitudinal stress
(normalized by the nominal stress) along the edge of the
bottom flange and the deformed shape of the bottom flange
of the test specimen obtained from finite element method
(FEM) analysis. The stress of the bottom flange in the region
Fig. 2. Difference in web-flange welds between Type-A and Type-B CWG
specimens.
Fig. 3. Longitudinal stress distribution along bottom flange edge and
deformed shape of bottom flange edge.
of combined shear and bending moment is higher than that
in the region of constant bending moment. This higher stress
in the shear and bending moment region results from
transverse flange bending due to a warping behavior of the
girder under shear [6]. Since this research focuses on
the fatigue behavior of the web-flange weld of CWG in the
constant bending moment region, ultrasonic impact treat-
ment (UIT) was applied to the weld toe in the region of
combined shear and bending moment to prevent fatigue
cracking in this region only. Fatigue cracks were not
observed in this region in any of the specimens. As shown in
Fig. 1, fatigue tests were carried out under 4-point loading.
The stress ratio was approximately 0.1.
3. Fatigue crack behavior and fatigue test results
Multiple cracks initiated along the typical inclined folds
in the region of constant bending moment, and all cracks
initiated from the flange-side weld toe of the web-flange
weld. The crack initiation and propagation observed in
Type-A and Type-B specimens are explained in Fig. 4. The
differences and similarities of the crack behavior between
the two types of specimen are summarized as follows:
1. Differences. In a Type-A specimen, multiple cracks
initiated from the weld toe and propagated along the
weld toe for a short length (5–7 mm). However, those
cracks did not propagate along the toe to the next ripple,
and instead they propagated away from the weld toe at a
certain point. Sometimes a crack coalesced with the next
crack, and eventually in this case, the coalesced crack
appeared to have propagated along weld. On the other
hand, in the Type-B specimen, the length of cracks along
the weld toe was very small, less than 1 mm, and the
cracks propagated away from weld toe quickly.
Crack coalescence in Type-B specimen was not observed
until final failure.
 K. Anami et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 27 (2005) 373–381 375

Fig. 4. Comparison of crack propagation behavior of Type-A and Type-B specimens.

2. Similarities. Once the cracks propagated away from the the smoothness of the weld toe, the improvement was
weld toe, the cracks propagated almost perpendicular to only about 8% in the stress range or 25% in the fatigue life.
the principal stress direction, which was about 10–158
inclined from the longitudinal direction. This principal 4. Stress conditions in the flange from FEM analyses
stress direction was obtained from strain gage measure-
ments and FEM analysis. Interaction between cracks In order to assess the fatigue behavior observed during
initiating along the toe of the same inclined fold was the fatigue tests, linear elastic FEM analyses of a girder
observed. This was manifested by retarded propagation specimen were carried out and the stress conditions,
of certain cracks due to the propagation of a neighboring
crack. Crack propagation into the weld bead was
considerably slower than the propagation away from
weld toe. The longest crack in all specimens, which led
to failure of the specimen, initiated near the end of the
inclined fold.

Results of the fatigue tests are plotted on the S–N

diagram in Fig. 5. The horizontal axis is the number of
loading cycles to failure and the vertical axis is the nominal
longitudinal stress range at the top surface of the bottom
flange, which was calculated by neglecting the web
contribution to resisting the bending moment. All the
fatigue test results were above AASHTO LRFD fatigue
strength Category B 0 [7], which is between Category C 0
(for a vertical stiffener welded to the bottom flange)
and Category B (for a longitudinal web-flange weld).
While the fatigue strength of the Type-B specimens was Fig. 5. Fatigue test results: nominal stress range versus loading cycles to
higher than that of the Type-A specimens due to failure.
376 K. Anami et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 27 (2005) 373–381
Fig. 6. FEM models and analysis procedure.
especially near the weld toe along the inclined fold, were
evaluated. The FEM analysis procedure and the FEM
models are briefly summarized in Fig. 6. In the FEM
models, the local toe radius (r) was assumed to be 1 mm as
shown in Fig. 6. The distribution of longitudinal stress,
principal stress and stress perpendicular to the weld line at
the weld toe are shown in Fig. 7. Those stresses are
normalized by the nominal bending stress (sn), which was
calculated neglecting the web contribution to resisting
bending moment. The difference between the principal
stress and the longitudinal stress is not significant and both
of these stresses are considerably higher than the stress
perpendicular to the weld. Although the fatigue test showed
Fig. 7. Stress distributions at Inclined Fold Weld Toe.
Fig. 8. Deformed shape of bottom flange in constant bending moment
region.
that the initial fatigue crack behavior was influenced by
local toe geometry, including the effect of weld surface
ripples, the direction of the macroscopic fatigue crack
propagation was dominated by the principal stress direction.
Since the difference in the magnitude of the principal stress
and the longitudinal stress is not significant, the longitudinal
stress is the focus of the stress analyses carried out in this
section. Along the inclined fold, the longitudinal stress
varies slightly, but it rapidly increases near the end of the
inclined fold (near point S in Fig. 7). The maximum stress
appears at point S. This result is consistent with the
experimental results that the fatigue cracks initiating near
point S propagated ahead of the cracks initiating closer to
the center of the inclined fold. The deformed shape of the
bottom flange plate in the constant bending moment region
shown in Fig. 8 indicates that in-plane and out-of-plane
secondary bending occurs in the flange plate even in the
constant bending moment region.
While the hot spot stress concept is sometimes effective
for evaluating the fatigue strength of welded joints with
attachments, especially where secondary stresses are
important [8], hot spot stress methods for cases where
the attachment is inclined with respect to the applied stress
have not been established. Niemi [9] proposed one method
where the hot spot stress is calculated using the larger of
Fig. 9. Hot spot stress at Toe of Inclined Fold.
 K. Anami et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 27 (2005) 373–381 377

the stresses in the applied stress direction (primary
direction) and in the direction perpendicular to attachment.
Using this proposed method and a rule of International
Institute of Welding (IIW) [9], the hot spot stress is
calculated in the present study by the extrapolation method
using the longitudinal stresses at 0.4T (8 mm) and 1.0T
(20 mm) from the weld toe as illustrated in Fig. 9, where T is
the flange thickness. The hot spot stress distribution along
the weld toe of the inclined fold is shown in Fig. 9,
indicating that the hot spot stress also increases near point S.
The magnitude of the hot spot stress at point S is about 1.23
times the nominal stress and this is the maximum value.
5. Influences of corrugation geometric parameters
on stress distribution
FEM analysis results for the fatigue test specimen were
discussed in the previous section. It is expected that
the corrugation geometric parameters, such as the
corrugation angle (q), the bend radius at the corner (R),
the corrugation depth (H), the length of the longitudinal
fold (L), the flange thickness (T), and the flange width (W)
may affect the stress conditions, especially at the inclined
fold weld toe. Thus, to establish the influence of these
parameters, parametric FEM analyses were carried out by
changing these parameters. Table 1 provides the par-
ameters and FEM results which include the longitudinal
stress and hot spot stress at point S and secondary in-plane
bending information, which is useful for explaining the
influence of some of the parameters on the stress
conditions. Although it can be argued that further
refinement of the finite element (FE) mesh will yield
more accurate results for the magnitude of the stress at the
weld toe, a comparison of the toe stresses between
different models is possible because the mesh size near
the weld toe, especially around point S, was kept the same
in all FEM models.

Table 1
Geometric parameters for FEM analyses and results

T (mm) W (mm) D (mm) L 0 (mm) L (mm) q (8) R (mm) H (mm) H 0 (mm) stoe/sn at S shot/sn at S sb/sn (%)
1 20 225.0 1200 500 152 25 60 150 138.7 1.47 1.12 9.3
2 20 225.0 1200 500 125 25 120 150 127.5 1.41 1.09 9.7
3 20 225.0 1200 500 99 25 180 150 116.3 1.40 1.08 10.0
4 20 337.5 1200 500 125 25 120 150 127.5 1.47 1.13 4.4
5 20 450.0 1200 500 125 25 120 150 127.5 1.47 1.17 2.5
6 30 225.0 1200 500 125 25 120 150 127.5 1.48 1.10 7.4
7 40 225.0 1200 500 125 25 120 150 127.5 1.51 1.09 6.0
8 30 450.0 1200 500 125 25 120 150 127.5 1.53 1.13 1.9
9 40 450.0 1200 500 125 25 120 150 127.5 1.54 1.10 1.5
10 20 225.0 1200 500 259 36.7 60 150 126.2 1.96 1.26 9.3
11 20 225.0 1200 500 300 36.7 120 90 42.4 1.91 1.24 6.7
12 20 225.0 1200 500 259 36.7 120 120 72.4 1.89 1.23 8.6
13 20 225.0 1200 500 219 36.7 120 150 102.4 1.86 1.23 9.6
14 20 225.0 1200 500 179 36.7 120 180 132.4 1.81 1.22 10.5
15 20 225.0 1200 500 219 36.7 180 150 78.6 1.80 1.21 9.9
16 20 337.5 1200 500 219 36.7 120 150 102.4 1.87 1.23 4.6
17 20 450.0 1200 500 219 36.7 120 150 102.4 1.84 1.24 2.5
18 30 225.0 1200 500 219 36.7 120 150 102.4 1.86 1.19 7.8
19 40 225.0 1200 500 219 36.7 120 150 102.4 1.91 1.17 6.8
20 20 225.0 1200 390 109 36.7 120 150 102.4 1.82 1.21 8.1
21 20 225.0 1200 720 439 36.7 120 150 102.4 1.87 1.24 11.2
22 20 225.0 1200 500 300 45 60 150 114.9 2.22 1.31 9.0
23 20 225.0 1200 500 275 45 90 150 97.3 2.13 1.29 9.4
24 20 225.0 1200 500 251 45 120 150 79.7 2.10 1.28 9.7
25 20 225.0 1200 500 201 45 180 150 44.6 2.02 1.25 9.9

Bold, fatigue specimen used in this study; T, flange thickness; W, flange width; D, web depth; L 0 , half-length of corrugation unit; L, length of flat fold; q,
corrugation angle; R, bending radius at corner; H, corrugation depth; H 0 , 2!distance from point S to the flange center (diagram (a)); M, in-plane bending
moment at section A-1; sn, nominal stress; sb, in-plane bending stress (in-plane behavior, diagram (b)).
378 K. Anami et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 27 (2005) 373–381

5.1. Influence of corrugation angle, q

The corrugation angle q is perhaps the most important

parameter influencing the fatigue strength of a CWG. The
influence of q between 25 and 458, which is the practical
range of q for a CWG, is examined. The bend radius R and
the corrugation depth H are kept constant as q is varied. The
longitudinal stress (stoe) and the hot spot stress (shot) along
the weld toe (normalized by sn) are shown in Figs. 10
and 11. The maximum stoe and shot always appear at point
S. While both stoe and shot decrease significantly with
a decrease in q, the decrease of stoe is greater than that of
shot. The distribution of these stresses along the weld toe of
the inclined fold varies with q. The stress monotonically
increases from point S 0 (see Fig. 7) to point S for the cases of
qZ45, 36.78. For qZ258, even though the stress peak is at Fig. 11. Influence of corrugation angle, q, on Hot Spot Stress.
point S, a stress minimum is observed between point S and
the center of the inclined fold, because the influence of change in q is an important parameter which affects the
the in-plane bending moment of the flange plate is larger fatigue strength.
when q is shallow.
The stress concentration factor at the weld toe is often
5.2. Influence of bend radius, R
assumed to result from two stress concentration factors,
namely the influence of the local toe profile (Ktoe) and the
Since the maximum stress in the FEM analyses always
influence of the geometry of the weld joint (Khot), which is
appears at point S and cracks initiating near point S led to
shot normalized by sn. Thus, the stress at the weld toe (stoe)
failure of the test specimens, it is important to decrease the
can be described as stoeZKtoe!Khot!sn where sn is the
stress concentration at this location. Since, increasing the
nominal stress [10]. From the FEM results, the local toe
bend radius at the corner (R), might reduce the high stress at
profile factor Ktoe can be calculated as KtoeZstoe/shot.
point S, the influence of R was studied by varying R from 60
Fig. 12 shows the distribution of Ktoe along the inclined fold
to 180 mm. Fig. 13 shows the distribution of stoe along
weld toe and indicates that the distribution of Ktoe is almost
the inclined fold weld toe. The stress at point S decreases
uniform along the inclined web fold but the magnitude of
with an increase in R, but the region where the stress
Ktoe varies with q. Thus, it can be concluded that a decrease
distribution changes is limited to the region near point S.
in q reduces both Khot and Ktoe. Yamada [11,12] recently
The influence of R on shot at point S is summarized in
carried out a series of fatigue tests using cruciform welded
Fig. 14. In this figure, the depth of the flat part of the
joint specimens with attachments inclined to the applied
inclined fold (H 0 ) is used for the horizontal axis. Increasing
stress direction, and reported that the change in Ktoe with a
R decreases shot and the decrease is almost linear with H 0
although the slope of the each line varies slightly with

Fig. 10. Influence of corrugation angle, q, on longitudinal stress at Weld

Toe. Fig. 12. Influence of corrugation angle, q, on local toe profile factor, Ktoe.
 K. Anami et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 27 (2005) 373–381
Fig. 13. Influence of bend radius, R, on longitudinal stress at Weld Toe.
the corrugation angle q. These results indicate that
increasing R is more efficient at decreasing shot when q is
large.
5.3. Influence of corrugation depth, H
The influence of the corrugation depth (H) on stoe is
shown in Fig. 15. The variation and maximum value of stoe
along the inclined fold increase as H decreases. The
variation in stress with H might result from an increase in
in-plane compressive bending stress in the flange plate as
shown in Table 1, where this in-plane bending moment
increases with an increase in H.
5.4. Influence of length of longitudinal fold, L
The results of the analyses where the length of the
longitudinal fold (L) is changed show that the influence of L
Fig. 14. Influence of bend radius, q, on hot spot stress at point S.
379
Fig. 15. Influence of corrugation depth, H, on longitudinal stress at Weld
Toe.
on stoe and shot at point S is not significant as summarized in
Table 1 (see cases 13, 20 and 21).
5.5. Influence of flange width, W and thickness, T
Since the in-plane bending and plate bending of the
flange plate affect the stress conditions, the influence of the
flange width (W) and thickness (T) on the stress conditions
were examined. The influence of W on shot is shown in
Fig. 16. While W does not significantly affects the stress
when qZ36.78, shot at point S increases and the distribution
shot near the flange center line becomes more uniform with
an increase in W when qZ258. This is because the influence
of the in-plane flange bending decreases when W increases
because of the increase in the in-plane bending stiffness of
the flange plate. The influence of T on shot when qZ36.78
and RZ120 mm is shown in Fig. 17. The results of cases
Fig. 16. Influence of flange width, W, on Hot Spot Stress.
380 K. Anami et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 27 (2005) 373–381
Fig. 17. Influence of flange thickness, T, on Hot Spot Stress.
with qZ258 are summarized in Table 1. While shot along
the inclined fold including point S decreases with the
increase in T, which increases of the plate bending stiffness
of the flange plate, the influence of T seems to have reached
a limit as T approaches 40 mm
5.6. Summary
The results of this section show that while all parameters
have a certain influence on the stress conditions near the
weld toe in a constant bending moment region, the
influences of q and R are the most significant. In addition,
since the influence of T and W tend to be small when these
parameters become large, it is important to use a realistic
flange geometry when the fatigue performance of CWG is
investigated.
6. Concluding remarks
The following conclusions were drawn from this study.
From the fatigue test results for the constant bending
moment region of the corrugated web girder (CWG) test
specimens:
(1) Fatigue cracks in CWG initiate from the toe of the web-
flange weld along the inclined fold and start to
propagate away from the weld toe after a short
propagation along the weld toe. Multiple fatigue cracks
are observed, but fatigue cracks initiating near point S
propagate ahead of the cracks initiating closer to the
center of the inclined fold, and lead to the girder failure.
(2) Fatigue resistance of the test specimens exceed
AASHTO Category B 0 when plotted on a S–N diagram
based on the longitudinal nominal stress range.
From the FEM analyses of the constant moment region of
a CWG
(1) In-plane bending and plate bending of the flange plate
occur even in a region of constant bending moment. The
highest stress always appears at the end of the flat part
of the inclined fold, point S. The corrugation angle (q)
and bend radius (R) are the parameters that most
influence the stress conditions near point S. The
influence of other parameters discussed in this study is
not significant compared to that of q and R.
(2) The corrugation angle (q) is the dominant parameter and
decreasing q decreases the stresses at the weld toe.
(3) By increasing the bend radius (R), the stress in the
vicinity of point S decreases. Since the decrease of hot
spot stress (shot) at point S is almost proportional to the
decrease of H 0 , the effectiveness of increasing R is
larger when q is larger.
(4) The influence of the corrugation depth (H) and
longitudinal fold length (L) are not significant.
(5) While an increase in the flange width (W) produces an
increase in stresses near point S especially when q is
small, and an increase in the flange thickness (T) leads
to a decrease in the weld toe stresses, these effects reach
a limit as these parameters become large. Therefore, it is
necessary to use a realistic flange geometry when the
fatigue performance of CWG is investigated.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the Federal Highway
Administration (US Department of Transportation), Penn-
sylvania Department of Transportation, and the Pennsylva-
nia Infrastructure Technology Alliance (funded by a grant
from Pennsylvania Department of Community and Econ-
omic Development). This financial support is gratefully
acknowledged. The corrugated web girder fatigue test
specimens were fabricated by High Steel Structures, Inc.
The authors are grateful for the contributions to the
corrugated web girder fatigue tests of Dr John Fisher, Dr
Robert Driver (University of Alberta), and the technical
staff of Fritz Lab, Lehigh University. The contents of the
paper reflect the views of the authors, and do not necessarily
reflect the views of those acknowledged herein.
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