Design in structural steelwork to BS 5950

Elastic Elastic Partially plastic Fully plastic

Beam remains straight Beam remains straight Beam remains slightly Plastic hinge formed
when unloaded when unloaded bent when unloaded

yield yield yield

yield yield yield

Below yield At yield point Partially plastic Fully plastic

Stresses with increasing bending moment

at centre span

Fig. 4.4 Bending failure of a bearn.

4.8.1 MODES OF FAILURE Flange buckling failure

4.8.1.1 Bending
The vertical loading gives rise to bending of the
M M
beam. This results in longitudinal stresses being Compression
set up in the beam. These stresses are tensile in
one half of the beam and compressive in the other.
As the bending moment increases, more and more
of the steel reaches its yield stress. Eventually, all
Tension
the steel yields in tension and/or compression across
the entire cross section of the beam. At this point
the beam cross-section has become plastic and it
fails by formation of a plastic hinge at the point Fig. 4.5 Local ange buckling failure.
of maximum moment induced by the loading. Fig-
ure 4.4 reviews this process. Chapter 2 summarises
how classical beam theory is derived from these 4.8.1.4 Shear buckling
considerations. During the shearing process described above, if the
4.8.1.2 Local buckling web is too thin it will fail by buckling or rippling in
During the bending process outlined above, if the the shear zone, as shown in Fig. 4.6(b).
compression ange or the part of the web subject
to compression is too thin, the plate may actually 4.8.1.5 Web bearing and buckling
fail by buckling or rippling, as shown in Fig. 4.5, Due to high vertical stresses directly over a support
before the full plastic moment is reached. or under a concentrated load, the beam web may
actually crush, or buckle as a result of these stresses,
4.8.1.3 Shear as illustrated in Fig. 4.7.
Due to excessive shear forces, usually adjacent to
supports, the beam may fail in shear. The beam 4.8.1.6 Lateral torsional buckling
web, which resists shear forces, may fail as shown in When the beam has a higher bending stiffness in
Fig. 4.6(a), as steel yields in tension and compres- the vertical plane compared to the horizontal plane,
sion in the shaded zones. The formation of plastic the beam can twist sideways under the load. This
hinges in the anges accompanies this process. is perhaps best visualised by loading a scale rule on
152
 Design of steel beams and joists

Plastic hinges V
in anges

Te

n
n

sio
si
(a) Shear

o
es
n
zone

pr
Te
m
n
Co

si
o n
V

Folds or buckles

(b)

Fig. 4.6 Shear and shear buckling failures: (a) shear failure; ( b) shear buckling.
Buckling

Buckling
Crushing

Crushing

Support Support Support

Fig. 4.7 Web buckling and web bearing failures.

its edge, as it is held as a cantilever it will tend to Destabilizing load

twist and deect sideways. This is illustrated in Root of cantilever
Fig. 4.8. Where a beam is not prevented from
moving sideways, by a oor, for instance, or the
beam is not nominally torsionally restrained at sup-
ports, it is necessary to check that it is laterally
Normal load
stable under load. Nominal torsional restraint may End of cantilever
be assumed to exist if web cleats, partial depth
end plates or n plates, for example, are present
(Fig. 4.9).
Normal load
4.8.1.7 Deection
Although a beam cannot fail as a result of exces-
sive deection alone, it is necessary to ensure that
deections are not excessive under unfactored
imposed loading. Excessive deections are those Fig. 4.8 Lateral torsional buckling of cantilever.

153