A SIMPLIFIED APPROACH TO FLANGE CURLING OF EDGE STIFFENED CHANNEL BEAMS UNDER PURE BENDING

When a relatively short, laterally braced edge-stiffened channel beam with unusually wide and thin flanges is subjected to moment actions ap plied about the axis of symmetry, in addition to the local buckling, t he flanges of the beam will tend to bend toward the neutral axis. This phenomenon is sometimes called flange curling. In the present paper, this phenomenon is examined experimentally and compared with simplifie d theoretical approximation. Strain gauges were used in the experiment in order to obtain the stress distribution in the flanges of the beam . Reasonably good agreement is obtained between experimental and theor etical predictions of flange curling. The comparisons between the expe rimental and predicted ultimate moments based on B.S.5950:pt 5 (BSI, L ondon, 1987) code of practice for design of cold-formed actions show t hat the current design specification has a tendency of overestimating the ultimate moment of such beams. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.