Lateral-torsional buckling of tapered thin-walled beams with arbitrary cross-sections

In this paper, a theoretical and numerical model based on the power series method is investigated for the lateral buckling stability of tapered thin-walled beams with arbitrary cross-sections and boundary conditions. Total potential energy is derived for an elastic behavior from strain energy and work of the applied loads. The effects of the initial stresses and load eccentricities are also considered in the study. The lateral-torsional equilibrium equations and the associated boundary conditions are obtained from the stationary condition. In presence of tapering, all stiffness coefficients are not constant. The power series approximation is then used to solve the fourth-order differential equations of tapered thin-walled beam with variable geometric parameters having generalized end conditions. Displacement components and cross-section properties are expanded in terms of power series of a known degree. The lateral buckling loads are determined by solving the eigenvalue problem of the obtained algebraic system. Several numerical examples of tapered thin-walled beams are presented to investigate the accuracy and the efficiency of the method. The obtained results are compared with finite element solutions using Ansys software and other available numerical or analytical approaches. It is observed that suggested method can be applied to stability of beams with constant cross-sections as well as tapered beams.

► The total potential energy principle is used to derive the equilibrium equations.
► Effects of tapering and load height effect on beam stability have been considered.
► The power series expansions are used to solve the stability differential equation.
► The lateral buckling loads are determined by solving the eigenvalue problem.
► The proposed method can be applied for beams with non-symmetric cross-sections.