Numerical analysis of steel coupling beam with flat and corrugated web.

Steel coupling beam is a substantial member in hybrid coupled walls system that greatly enhance the strength and the energy dissipation capacity of the system compared to coupled walls linked by convention reinforced coupling beams and diagonally reinforced coupling beams. To enhance these characteristics even more, a corrugated web may be used instead of the traditional flat web. This paper presents a numerical analysis using finite elements software (ABAQUS) to investigate the nonlinear behavior of both types of steel coupling beams (with flat web and with corrugated web). The effect of initial imperfection on the nonlinear behavior of steel coupling beams was taken into account. The results were compared with the available experimental data of steel coupling beams with the flat web. Good agreement was noticed between the experimental and the numerical results. Among the conclusions drawn in this study is that using a corrugated web as an alternative to a flat web may increase both the strength and the energy dissipation of the steel coupling beams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]