The stability behavior of rigid and semirigid frames bent in the weak
axis is investigated using a hardening plastic hinge method. The stabi
lity limit load of frames is usually overpredicted by the simple plast
ic hinge analysis neglecting the effect of partial plastification. The
plastic zone analysis can predict the limit load more accurately but
a large number of elements must be used. Hence, it is costly and time-
consuming. An alternative method called the ''hardening plastic hinge
method'' is developed here for practical use. In the proposed method,
one element is used per beam-column. The initial yield surface includi
ng residual stress is first determined from the normalized moment-curv
ature-thrust relationship of W8 x 31 section. The member stiffness is
then modified to simulate the effect of partial plastification through
the concept of work-hardening in which the average degradation of tan
gent stiffness of a cross section is calibrated against the slopes of
the exact moment-curvature-thrust relationship. The stability limit lo
ads of planar steel frames predicted by this and several other methods
are compared. The results predicted by the hardening-hinge method are
found close to that of the plastic-zone method and experimental resul
ts.