Inelastic lateral buckling strength and design of steel arches

Arches resist general loading by a combination of axial compression and ben ding actions. Under these actions, an arch loaded in-plane may suddenly def lect laterally and twist out of the plane of loading and fail in a lateral buckling mode. This paper investigates the inelastic lateral buckling stren gth and design of steel arches under general loading using an advanced nonl inear inelastic finite element method of analysis. It is found that the sub tended angle and load distribution significantly affect the lateral bucklin g strength of a steel arch. The effects of initial crookedness and twist an d residual stresses on the strengths of arches are also important. The rule s for designing steel beam-columns against inelastic lateral buckling canno t be used directly in the design of steel arches against inelastic lateral buckling under general loading because they do not include the effects of t he subtended angle and the load distribution. The design rules developed in this paper provide conservative predictions for the lateral buckling stren gths of steel arches under general loading, and offer considerable economie s. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.