Experimental and numerical studies on corrugated steel-concrete-corrugated steel sandwich composite arches

A novel corrugated steel-concrete-corrugated steel (CSCCS) sandwich composite arch is proposed, with advantages in load-bearing capacity, corrosion resistance, local stability, and ductility. A comparative experiment was conducted against it with a steel-concrete-steel (SCS) sandwich composite arch and a reinforced concrete (RC) arch, to investigate its load-bearing capacity, failure mode, strain development and loading mechanism. A geometrically and materially nonlinear finite element model considering imperfections and interfacial behavior was developed for the CSCCS sandwich composite arch, followed by parametric analyses. The results indicate that the CSCCS sandwich composite arch outperforms the SCS sandwich composite arch and the RC arch, with an improvement of over 20 % in load-bearing capacity, over 32 % in initial stiffness, and over 22 % in ductility, while also mitigating local buckling and enhancing the composite effect through optimized interfacial interactions. Finally, based on 276 parametric studies, an approach for calculating the axial compressive stability load-bearing capacity of the CSCCS sandwich composite arch was proposed, and recommended design parameters were provided.