Keywords: lateral torsional buckling, stability, buckling load, I-section beams, ABAQUS.

Lateral torsional buckling is one of the major failure modes in which a transversely or combined transversely and axially loaded member that is bent with respect to its axis of greatest flexural rigidity may buckle laterally and twist as applied load reaches its critical value, unless the beam is provided with a sufficient lateral support. Many methods have been presented to calculate the lateral torsional buckling load of a double symmetric I section beam in previous studies. On the other hand, due to the analytical aspects the determination of the critical lateral torsional buckling load is quite complex and it is difficult to devise closed form solutions for cases with different loading and boundary conditions. In this paper, the lateral torsional buckling load of simply supported European IPE and IPN beams are expressed in terms of dimensionless coefficients for various loading cases by considering three different loading positions on beam cross section, which are top flange, shear centre and bottom flange. The buckling loads were calculated by using the energy method, then a parametric study was conducted by means of the results obtained to establish an equation for lateral torsional buckling load of IPE and IPN beams. The results obtained using the proposed equation were validated with the ABAQUS finite element software. It is shown that the equation presented can be used to evaluate the lateral torsional buckling load of IPN and IPE beams.

purchase the full-text of this paper (price £20)

go to the previous paper
go to the next paper
return to the table of contents
return to the book description
purchase this book (price £75 +P&P)