RESEARCH ARTICLE


Stability of Steel Columns with Non-Uniform Cross-Sections



Theodore G. Konstantakopoulos , Ioannis G. Raftoyiannis *, George T. Michaltsos
Civil Engng Dept., National Technical University of Athens, 15780 Greece.


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© G. Konstantakopoulos et al.; Licensee Bentham Open

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Correspondence: * Address correspondence to this author at the Civil Engng Dept., National Technical University of Athens, 15780 Greece.Tel: +30-210-7722454; Fax: +30-210-7722482; E-mail: rafto@central.ntua.gr


Abstract

In this work, non-uniform steel members with or without initial geometrical or loading imperfections, that are loaded by axial forces applied concentrically or eccentrically and by concentrated moments applied at the ends or at intermediate points, are studied. More specifically, steel members with varying cross-sections, tapered or stepped or members consisting by two different tapered parts are considered. The formulation presented in this work is based on solving the governing equation of the problem through a numerical method where the eigenshapes of the member are employed. A failure plasticity criterion is introduced for members especially the short ones that will never reach the elastic critical buckling load. Although only the simply supported beam-column case is studied herein, it is obvious that the method can be extended to multi-span beams and frames, by employing the corresponding eigenshapes. Useful diagrams are presented for both the critical buckling loads and the equilibrium paths showing the influence of the main characteristics of the beam-column.

Keywords: stability, non-uniform members, buckling loads, imperfections, yield failure.