This paper presents a novel analytical expression to determine the elastic lateraltorsional
buckling resistance of I‐beams with corrugated web. The corrugated web beams have
higher torsional stiffness than the flat web beams; therefore, the self‐weight of
the beam can be reduced. The appropriate hand calculation methods to determine the
elastic critical moment of corrugated web beams are based on the modification of warping
constant of the cross‐section. In this paper, instead of modifying the warping constant
the approximate expression is derived from the total potential strain energy of the
beam using an energy method. During the solution, the beam is separated into three
parts. The flanges are modelled as thin‐walled beams and the corrugated web is modelled
as a thin equivalent orthotropic plate with uniform thickness. To assess the accuracy
of the proposed analytical formula full shell finite element models were created in
Abaqus software. The accuracy of the proposed expression is examined for sinusoidal
and trapezoidal corrugation also. The results of the parametric study showed that
the derived formula is accurate and applicable for elastic lateral‐torsional buckling
analysis of I‐beams with web corrugation.
