Moment Resistance of H section Steel Members Bent About Minor Axis

Abstract:

The behavior of H section steel members bent about the minor axis was thoroughly investigated by taking the relationship of the plate element slendernesses with the flexural resistance into consideration. A finite element analysis was conducted to investigate the whole loading process behavior of H section steel members composed of different combinations of flange and web slendernesses bent about their minor axis, where the failure mechanism was derived from the stress development curves. It is found that the behavior of such members in pre ultimate stage is mainly affected by the flange width to thickness ratio; while the behavior of such members in the post ultimate stage is significantly affected by the flange web interaction. In addition, the proposed slenderness limit for H section members was put forward, which could attain their full plastic moment resistance when they being bent about the minor axis. Finally, the effective plastic width method for calculating ultimate strength was put forward.