Distortional Buckling Solutions for Continuous Composite Beams

Abstract

The paper presents a theoretical analysis of fixed‐ended composite steel‐concrete beams, representative of members continuous over an internal support. The analysis is elastic, and allows for the variation of sagging and hogging bending along the member. The stress resultants obtained from the virtual work analysis are used for an extensive finite element study of lateral‐distortional buckling of fixed‐ended composite beams. The details of the computer program adopted are described elsewhere. Based on the elastic buckling solutions, a design method is proposed to calculate the strength of the composite beam with respect to the buckling limit state. This design method is less conservative than that implied in current design codes, and leads to economies of material. The analysis for continuous composite beams provides a benchmark study for future studies.