Web strain based prediction of web distortion influence on the elastic LTB limiting length

Buckling is one of the most critical phoneme in the design of steel structures. Lateral torsional buckling (LTB) is particularly significant for slender beams generally subjected to loading in plane. The web distortion effects on LTB are not addressed explicitly in standards for flexural design of steel I-section members. Hence, the present study is focused to predict the influence of the web distortion on the elastic (Lr) limiting lengths given in American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) code for the lateral torsional buckling (LTB) behavior of steel beams due to no provision in the code for consideration of web distortion. For this aim, the W44x335 beam is adopted in the buckling analysis carried out by the ABAQUS finite element (FE) program since it is one of the most critical sections in terms of lateral torsional buckling (LTB). The strain results at mid-height of the web at mid-span of the beam are taken into account as the monitoring parameters. The web strain results are found to be relatively greater than the yield strain value when L/Lr is equal to 1.0. In other words, the ratio of L/Lr is estimated from the numerical analysis to be about 1.5 when the beam reaches its first yielding at mid-span of the beam at mid-height of the section. Due to the effect of web distortion, the elastic limiting length (Lr) from the numerical analysis is obtained to be considered as greater than the calculated length from the code formulation. It is suggested that the formulations of the limiting length proposed in the code can be corrected considering the influence of the web distortion. This correction can be a modification factor or a shape factor that reduces sectional slenderness for the LTB formulation in the code.