Elastic distortional buckling of overhanging beams

The paper considers the elastic distortional buckling of overhanging beams, which consist of an internal segment with a cantilevered segment continuous over an internal support. The beams were considered loaded by a concentrated load at the cantilever tip, and the beams were either partially restrained or laterally restrained over the internal support. An efficient line-type finite element developed previously by the author was modified to incorporate loading remote from the shear centre, as well as to allow for lateral buckling without distortion. Buckling loads were obtained for a range of geometry when the load was placed on the top flange, at the shear centre or on the bottom flange. Buckling mode shapes were also obtained, and conclusions drawn regarding the influence of distortion on the overall buckling load.