STUDS EFFECT ON BEHAVIOR OF LATERAL BUCKLING OF COMPOSITE STEEL BEAM

Abstract

The lateral bracing effect of studs on lateral buckling of composite beams within frames under seismic loading was examined experimentally and analytically. Regardless of the bracing condition on the top flange, the beam slenderness ratio and web thickness ratio that were taken as parameters, all tested beams did not experience buckling until at least a drift ratio of 2.0%, confirming that the lateral bracing of the studs was very effective. Also the influence of the total number of studs on the buckling was investigated by an elasto-plastic analysis. Changing the total number of studs did affect neither the magnitude of the total lateral force of studs that failed by buckling nor the distribution length ratio.