TORSION, BENDING AND BUCKLING OF STEEL BEAMS

Very few steel design standards give rules for designing against torsi on. It appears that torsion is largely ignored because it is thought t o occur rarely, and when it does, to be unimportant. In addition, diff iculties in predicting torsional effects tend to discourage designers from considering torsion at all. However, the growing use of three-dim ensional computer analysis programs has alerted many designers to the presence of secondary torsion actions in the structures they design, a nd has led them to question their significance and to seek advice on h ow to design for them. In addition, there are some circumstances where designers wish to transfer primary loads by torsion, either alone, or in combination with bending actions, but are prevented from doing so by difficulties in predicting torsional behaviour and a lack of inform ation on how to design for torsion. This paper summarizes a series of investigations into the behaviour, analysis and design of members subj ected to combined torsion and bending. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.