INPLANE INELASTIC BUCKLING AND STRENGTHS OF STEEL ARCHES

The in-plane inelastic buckling and strengths of circular steel I-sect ion arches are investigated using a finite-element program for the non linear inelastic analysis. The elastic-plastic-strain-hardening behavi or of the arches is determined by taking into account the effects of t he arch curvature, large deformations, high-order deformed curvatures, material inelasticity, initial crookedness, and residual stresses. Ra dial loads uniformly distributed around the arch axis, concentrated lo ads, and loads distributed along the horizontal projection of the arch art studied, which induce either uniform compression or combined bend ing and compression in the arch. The effects of initial crookedness, r ise-to-span ratio, residual stresses, and dead load to total load rati o on the in-plane inelastic stability and strengths of steel arches in uniform compression and in combined compression and bending are inves tigated.