Buckling and Bracing of Cantilevers

Abstract

The elastic flexural‐torsional buckling of cantilever I‐beams is investigated. The cantilevers have rigid translational or rotational restraints or both at discrete points. The effect of the beam parameter, K, the load height, the location of restraint positions along the beam, and the level at which the restraint acts have been studied using the finite integral method. Results are presented graphically as ratios of the increased critical load of the partially braced beam and the corresponding critical load of the unbraced beam. The beam load cases considered are concentrated loads and uniformly distributed loads. The effectiveness of the restraint locations and the types of restraint are investigated. Experiments conducted using extruded high strength aluminium I‐section are reported. Test results obtained are in reasonable agreement with the theoretical predictions.