Calculation of slenderness ratio for laced columns with serpentine and crosswise lattices

In contrast to the technique accepted in existing design specifications, a slenderness ratio for laced columns with serpentine or crosswise lattices is determined as a result of consideration of the laced column as a statically indeterminate structure. Recent results of solving the buckling problem for laced columns, on the one hand, and the well known relationship between the slenderness ratio of the compressed bar and its elastic critical force, on the other hand, enable representation of the slenderness ratio of the laced column as a function of the special lattice rigidity parameter and the number panels into which the lattice joints divide the column chords. The obtained curves of the slenderness ratio for columns with a different number of panels are slightly distinguished one from another. As a consequence the single dependence between the modified slenderness ratio of the column and the lattice rigidity parameter can be accepted for columns regardless of the number of panels. This dependence is constructed by enveloping at the top the curves corresponding to fixed numbers of panels. The obtained plots of the modified slenderness ratio for columns with serpentine and crosswise lattices can be applied in designing steel-laced columns.