EVALUATION OF WIDTH-THICKNESS RATIO LIMITATION OF H-SHAPED BEAM MEMBERS BASED ON COUPLED BUCKLING ANALYSIS

Abstract

Width-thickness ratio limitation of thin plate is defined in current standard by considering boundary condition and stress situation under either pure compression or pure shear. On one hand, considering the effect of bending force, the larger width-thickness ratio of thin plate is able to be used in many cases of H-shaped beams when overall buckling does not happen. On the other hand, overestimation may be caused in cases of light-gauge thin plates formed H-shaped beams with long span which are easily affected by overall buckling. This paper is to study the proper evaluation of limitation about width-thickness ratio of H-shaped beam members under bending and shear based on the coupled buckling analysis in previous studies by energy method, and an easy evaluation method is proposed.