A Continuation on the Influence of Loaded Width on Web Compression Buckling

This paper presents a continuation and conclusion of an experimental and numerical study on web compression buckling strength of steel wide flange members subjected to concentric loads spread over a length wider than member depths. The current web compression buckling design equation in the AISC specification is limited to situations where the concentric compression load is applied over a very short length, such as flange thickness of the beam at beam-to-column connections. The equation lacks any specific guidance for designing steel members subjected to wider concentric loads, which are commonly found in pass-through connections. The previous studies focused on conducting experimental tests at a fixed specimen length to develop benchmark numerical models. The current study presents additional set of experimentation that utilizes variable specimen lengths to further verify the benchmarked numerical model. The benchmarked numerical models accounted for residual stress and measured out-of-plane imperfections to accurately estimate the web compression buckling strength of the specimens. These developed models were then used in a numerical parametric study to investigate additional parameters that were not included in the experimental program. The parametric study investigated the effects of load width, web height and thickness, and location of the applied load on the web compression buckling strength of wide flange members. Several wide flange section sizes were selected to conduct the parametric study to cover a wide range of commonly used beam members. Findings from this experimental and numerical study provided data necessary to propose amendments to the existing AISC specification equation for web compression buckling strength to include the effect of load width.

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