Experimental lateral-torsional buckling behaviour of web tapered I-section steel beams

In order to improve the accuracy of the proposed procedures, full-scale experimental tests on tapered columns, beams and beam-column were carried out. The experiments are used to calibrate a numerical model, incorporating all relevant parameters, such as: geometrical imperfections (local and global) and material imperfections (residual stresses). In this paper, firstly a global overview of the experimental programme on web-tapered steel members is given. The key results from each experiment are summarized; they are further used for the calibration of an advanced numerical model.