Elastic lateral distortional buckling analysis of cantilever I-beams

Author: Ma Ming   McNatt Tobin   Hays Bruce   Hunter Shaun  

Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

ISSN: 1744-5302

Source: Ships and Offshore Structures, Vol.8, Iss.3-4, 2013-06, pp. : 261-269

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Abstract

A study of elastic lateral distortional buckling of cantilever monosymmetrical I-beams is presented. The method assumes that the flange cross-sections remain straight (undistorted) during buckling, but that the web is free to distort. Three different load patterns are considered: an end moment load, a uniformly distributed lateral pressure and an end point load. The study applied a Rayleigh-Ritz method that the authors previously developed for simply supported beams to cantilevers. The accuracy of the method is verified by comparing the results with a general finite element linear buckling analysis, using NX/Nastran. The method offers advantages over commonly used finite element analysis because it is mesh-free and requires only 6 × n</i> degrees of freedom; therefore, the solution process is rapid and suitable for design space exploration. For doubly symmetric I-beams, a cubic transverse normal stress distribution, derived from the equation of equilibrium, was used in the total potential energy. The results were compared to the previous method which used a linear stress distribution.