Lateral-torsional buckling of partially protected steel I-beams exposed to fire

Abstract

This paper proposes a new model for thin-walled open profiles able to predict bending-torsion buckling of thermally restrained steel I beams with bi- and mono-symmetric cross-sections. Refined nonlinear kinematics accounts for the shifts of the centroid and shear centre generated by the thermal gradient. The eigenvalue problem derived from geometrically nonlinear balance equations is solved via power series and Newton-Raphson technique. Several examples are presented; the results are compared with those provided by Abaqus simulation and the literature.