Design of Bending Members in Steel

Steel wide
flange
beams in
an office
building
Composite Steel-Concrete Girders
An example of
curved steel
beams

German Historical Museum

Steel Girders for Bridge Decks

Sea to sky highway, Squamish

Cantilevered
arms for steel
pole
 What can go wrong ?
STEEL BEAMS:

Bending failure

Lateral torsional buckling

Shear failure

Bearing failure (web crippling)

Excessive deflections
 Bending Strength
Linear elastic stresses My M
max
I S
M max S
y
M for rectangula r sections
bh 2
S
6
Design Equation:
M r Fb S
Where Fb is the characteristic bending strength
For steel this is Fb = Fy
For timber it is Fb = fb (KDKHKSbKT)
Plastic moment capacity of steel beams
Fy Fy Ac
C
My Mp a

T
At
Yield moment Plastic moment
M y Fy S Mp Ca Ta
Fy AC a Fy AT a
Fy Z
So, when do we use Which is the definition of the plastic section
the one or the other modulus Z
?? Z can be found by halving the cross-sectional
area and multiplying the distance between the
centroids of the two areas with one of the areas
This is also called the first moment of area
 Steel beam design equation
For laterally supported
beams (no lateral
torsional buckling)

Mr = Fy Z
for class 1 and 2
sections

Mr = Fy S
for class 3 sections

where = 0.9
 Steel cross-section classes
Class 4 Real thin plate sections Mr < My
Will buckle before reaching Fy at (Use Cold
Formed Section
extreme fibres Code S136)

Class 3 Fairly thin (slender) flanges and web

Will not buckle until reaching Fy in Mr = My
extreme fibres
Class 2 Stocky plate sections Mr = Mp
Will not buckle until at least the
plastic moment capacity is reached
Class 1 Very stockyplate sections
Can be bent beyond Mp and can Mr = Mp
therefore be used for plastic
analysis
Load deflection curves for Class 1
to Class 4 sections
Local buckling of the
compression flange
Local torsional buckling of the
compression flange
Local web buckling
 Lateral torsional buckling
Elastic buckling:
Mu = / Le (GJ EIy ) + (/L)2EIy ECw

Moment gradient factor

Torsional stiffness
Lateral bending stiffness
Warping stiffness y
y

x
x
y
Le x
x

y
y
 Moment resistance of laterally
Mr /
unsupported steel beams
Mmax Mmax = My for class 3
or Mp for class 1 and 2

0.67Mmax

1.15 Mmax [1- (0.28Mmax/Mu)]

Mu

Le
 Shear stress in a beam
A

y
A y
d
d b=w
N.A.
max N.A. max
= V(0.5A)(d/4) V/Aw
(bd3/12)b =V/wd
=1.5 V/A
b

VAy VQ

Ib Ib
 Shear design of a steel I-beam

Vr = Aw 0.66 Fy
for h/w 1018/Fy = 54.4 for 350W steel
w This is the case for all rolled shapes
d h
For welded plate girders when
h/w 1018/Fy
the shear stress is reduced to
account for buckling of the web
(see clause 13.4.1.1)

Aw = d.w for rolled shapes and h.w for welded girders

 Bearing N+10t

failures in a w

steel beam k
N+4t

For end reactions

N
Br bi w N 4t Fy , or ,1.45bi w2 Fy E
For interior reactions
Br bi w N 10t Fy , or , 0.60be w2 Fy E
 Deflections
A serviceability criterion
Avoid damage to cladding etc. ( L/180)
Avoid vibrations ( L/360)
Aesthetics ( L/240)
Use unfactored loads
Typically not part of the code