Abstract
An efficient computational method has been developed by the authors for predicting the large deflection behavior of spatial rigid frames. The method is based on the beam-column finite element method with the incremental perturbation technique. The three-dimensional finite rotations are exactly incorporated in the method. This paper shows that the author's method accurately predicts the experimental results on the large deflection behavior of model rigid frames. The model frames are made of styrene and acrylic plates which keep elastic up to large deflection range. It is also shown that the finite element model with warping function is able to predict accurately the theoretical lateral buckling load of a simply supported H beam.
