See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/233651177

Design of Tapered Compression Members According to

Eurocode 3_Extended abstract

Article  in  Journal of Constructional Steel Research · April 1998

DOI: 10.1016/S0143-974X(98)00064-9

CITATIONS READS

13 636

2 authors, including:

António M. Baptista
National Laboratory for Civil Engineering
85 PUBLICATIONS   145 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by António M. Baptista on 08 March 2017.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 J. Construct. Steel Res. Vol. 46, Nos. I-3, pp. 146-148, paper number 121; 1998
01998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
Printed in Great Britain
PII: so143-974xx(9@ooo64-9 0143-974X/98 $17.00 + 0.00
ELSEVIER

Design of Tapered Compression Members According to

Eurocode 3

A. M. Baptista’ and J. P. Muzeau2

‘Laboratkio National de Engenharia

Civil (LNEC), Avenida do Brasil, 101-1799 Lisboa
Codex, Portugal
‘LERMES, UniversitC Blake Pascal de Clermont-Ferrand, BP 206, 63174 Aubiike Cedex,
France

Paper Number 121

Full paper on enclosed CD-ROM

Tapered members for beams and columns are an interesting solution for the
design of steel structures. They allow a gain of material which, for some
particular cases, should not be neglected. However, there are no specific rules
for the design of such elements yet, and the Eurocode 3 allows the designers
to choose the method for the verification of the safety of these members.
Instability phenomena, such as global buckling for example, are usually
those that raise more difficulties to this verification. These elements must be
checked using second-order analysis or simplified methods based on modifi-
cations of the basic procedure for uniform members.
This paper presents a formulation for the design of such members, Baptista
et al. (1995). According to Eurocode 3, the buckling resistance of a uniform
member is given by the following relationship:

(1)
In order to enlarge the field of application of this formula to tapered members,
it is proposed to express the design resistance of tapered columns according
to equation (2):

Nb,mp.Rd = k Nb,min.Rd = k X PA 4ninfvlYM1 (2)

where: Nb,&+&,is the buckling resistance of the tapered member,

Nb,min.Rd is the buckling resistance of a uniform member
with the same boundary conditions, whose cross-section
corresponds to the smallest tapered member cross-section,
k is a coefficient taking into account the effect of tapering
on the member buckling resistance.

146
 Design of Tapered Compression Members According to Eurocode 3 147

In this relationship, Nb,mi,,Rdis chosen as a reference value because, in the

case of a stocky column (without buckling), the resistance of the member
depends on the geometrical and mechanical characteristics of its smallest
cross-section. The coefficient k may be expressed by analytical relationships,
which are found by means of mathematical fitting to the results of a large
number of numerical simulations. These analytical relationships may be
presented under the form of various abacuses for the different boundary con-
ditions, as shown in Figure 1.
The second-order non-linear mechanical model used on the numerical stud-
ies, Baptista (1994), able to take into account the tapered shape of the com-
pressed members, is presented in a first step. Then, an application example is
presented to validate its results.
The parametrical study was developed taking into account the variations in
the height of the cross-sections, the slenderness of the members and various
boundary conditions. The differences between the mechanical behaviour of
uniform and tapered compressed columns, with I shape cross-sections and
hinged on both ends, are described for the two cases of buckling over their
strong and weak axes of inertia.
An explanation of these differences is given for the different domains of
elastic and elastic-plastic evolution of their behaviours, depending on their
reference slenderness (A,,) values. 0 I998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights
reserved

KEYWORDS
Tapered column, non-uniform member, compressed element, design buckling
resistance, strong-axis buckling, weak-axis buckling, non-linear behaviour,
elastic-plastic analysis, buckling rules, Eurocode 3.

k Member hinged at both ends

04 0,s 1,0 1,2 1,4 1,6 1,8 2,0 2,2 2,4 2,6 2,8 3,0
Fig. 1. k coefficientsfor a tapered member hinged at both ends and bent over its strong axis.
148 A. M. Bnptista and J. P. Muzeau

REFERENCES

Baptista, A. M. (1994), ModtYe non linkaire gt!ome’trique et mate’riel fond6 sur 1‘ana-
lyse des dkfoonnations globules des sections, Thkse de Doctorat, Blake Pascal Univer-
sity, Clennont-Ferrand, 480 pp.
Baptista, A. M. and Ribeiro, A. (1995), Resisthcia ao varejamento de pilares de
ine’rcia vuria’vel em ago, LNEC, Lisboa, Nota Tknica No 23/95 - NCE, 234 pp.

View publication stats