Technical

Lateral torsional
buckling and slenderness
The expression for slenderness used in the lateral torsional buckling checks given in BSEN1993-1-1:2005 is different
to that given in BS5950-1:2000. Mary Brettle, Senior Engineer at the Steel Construction Institute, examines lateral
torsional buckling and shows how both slenderness expressions are based on the same elastic critical moment theory.

1. WHAT IS LATERAL TORSIONAL BUCKLING? flanges. This is why Table 20 of BS5950-1:2000 relates the value
Lateral torsional of pb to the ratio of depth / flange thickness (D/T) and Table 7 of
buckling may occur in an BS449-2:1969 relates the value of elastic critical stress (Cs) to D/T.
unrestrained beam. A
beam is considered to 1.3 What affects lateral torsional buckling
be unrestrained when its Some factors that influence the lateral torsional buckling
compression flange is free behaviour of beams are briefly discussed below:
to displace laterally and
rotate. When an applied Location of the applied load
load causes both lateral The vertical distance between the load application point and
displacement and twisting the shear centre of the section affects the susceptibility of the
of a member lateral Figure 1 section to the effects of lateral torsional buckling. If the load
torsional buckling has is applied at a location above the shear centre of a section it is
occurred. Figure 1 shows more susceptible to lateral torsional buckling than if the load was
the lateral displacement and twisting experienced by a beam applied through the shear centre. Applying the load at a location
when lateral torsional buckling occurs. below the shear centre of a section reduces the susceptibility
of the section to the effects of lateral torsional buckling. When
1.1 What causes the lateral deflection? the load is applied above the shear centre it is known as a
The applied vertical load destabilising load, with loads applied at or below the shear
results in compression centre called non-destabilising loads. The effect of a destabilising
and tension in the flanges load is considered by the use of effective lengths given in Table
of the section. The 13 of BS5950-1:2000, where the effective lengths are longer for
compression flange tries destabilising loads compared to the non-destabilising loads.
to deflect laterally away
from its original position, The shape of the applied bending moment
whereas the tension The buckling resistance for a section subject to a uniform
flange tries to keep the bending moment distribution along its length is less than the
member straight. The buckling resistance obtained for the same section subjected to
lateral movement of a different bending moment distribution. Factors are included
the flanges is shown in in design guidance to allow for the effect of different bending
Figure 2. moment distributions. UK designers will be familiar with the use
The lateral bending of the equivalent uniform moment factor (mLT) in BS5950-1:2000.
Figure 2
of the section creates
restoring forces that oppose the movement because the section End support conditions
wants to remain straight. These restoring forces are not large The end support conditions considered during the development
enough to stop the section from deflecting laterally, but together of the basic theory for buckling moments are equivalent to
with the lateral component of the tensile forces, they determine web cleats that stop the web from deflecting laterally and
the buckling resistance of the beam. twisting. For end conditions where more restraint is given to
the section the buckling moment increases, with the buckling
1.2 Torsional effect moment decreasing for end supports that offer less restraint
In addition to the lateral movement of the section the to the section. BS5950-1:2000 considers effective lengths when
forces within the flanges cause the section to twist about its determining the slenderness of a section to account for the effect
longitudinal axis as shown in Figure 3. The twisting is resisted of end restraint on lateral torsional buckling.
by the torsional stiffness of the section. The torsional stiffness
of a section is dominated by the flange thickness. That is why 2. SECTION SLENDERNESS
a section with The slenderness of a section is used in design checks for lateral
thicker flanges has torsional buckling. The following factors affect the slenderness of
a larger bending a section:
strength (pb) than Length of the beam
the same depth of Figure 3 Lateral bending stiffness of the flanges
section with thinner Torsional stiffness of the section

30 NSC October 2006

Technical

Design codes need to account for the above factors in the

guidance they give for determining the slenderness of a section.
The elastic critical moment (Mcr) is used as the basis for the
methods given in design codes for determining the slenderness BS5400-3:2000
of a section. The elastic critical moment (Mcr) is similar to the The guidance given in this British Standard for overall lateral
Euler (flexural) buckling of a strut in that it defines a buckling buckling given in clause 9.7.5 explicitly uses M cr as follows:
load. Euler bucking defines the axial compression that will cause
a strut to fail in elastic flexural buckling compared with the elastic
critical moment that defines the moment that will result in failure
due to elastic lateral torsional buckling of a beam. The Elastic Where:
critical buckling (Mcr) and Euler buckling (PE) curves are shown in Zpe is defined in 9.7.1 as
Figure 4.
The buckling
moment of a section 3. EUROCODE 3 DESIGN
is affected by The lateral torsional buckling design guidance given in
plasticity. Therefore BSEN1993-1-1:2005 requires a reduction factor (cLT) to be applied
the buckling to the moment resistance of the cross section to give the lateral
moment resistance torsional buckling moment resistance (Mb,Rd). cLT is determined
(Mb) cannot be from a factor (FLT) and the non-dimensional slenderness factor
greater than the (lLT). The expression given for lLT is:
plastic moment (Mpl)
of the section. The
buckling moment
resistance curve Where:
shown in Figure 4 Figure 4 Wy y is the moment resistance for the section (Mb,Rd), which is
shows that; equivalent to Mc in BS5950-1:2000.
very slender sections fail elastically by excessive lateral
torsional buckling at an applied moment close to Mcr, 3.1 Calculating Mcr
intermediate slender sections fail inelastically by excessive For doubly symmetric sections the expression for Mcr is:
lateral torsional buckling at applied moments less than Mcr,
stocky sections will attain their full plastic moment (Mpl) with
negligible lateral torsional buckling.
Where
2.1 How British Standards use the elastic critical moment (Mcr) E is the Youngs modulus
British Standard steel design codes all use Mcr as the basis for G is the shear modulus
determining the slenderness of a section, but, the expressions Iz is the second moment of area about the minor axis
used in the codes are not the same. Below the expressions given It is the torsion constant
in some British Standards are considered. Iw is the warping constant
L is the beam length between points which have lateral
BS5950-1:2000 restraint
The expression given for uniform I, H and channel sections with k and kw are effective length factors
equal flanges is: zg is the distance between the point of load application and the
The above expression does not appear to consider Mcr . shear centre (see Figure 5)
However, when the expressions given in Annex B of C1 and C2 are coefficients depending on the loading and
BS5950-1:2000 are considered it can be shown how the above end restraint
expression is based on Mcr. conditions.

Further details
on the above
Where: calculation of Mcr
can be found in
the access Steel
document SN003a,
w is defined in 4.3.6.9 as where the design which is given on
modulus depends on the classification of the cross section. the website: www.
Therefore, the expression for lLT can be rearranged to give: accesssteel.com. Figure 5

3.2 Dont panic, you can determine lLT without Mcr

After seeing the above expression for Mcr for doubly symmetric
sections designers will be pleased to learn that lLT can be
BS449-2:1969 determined without having to calculate Mcr. From the formula for
The guidance given for bending stresses in plate girders uses the Mcr the following expression for rolled I, H and channel sections
elastic critical stress (Cs) to determine the permissible bending with non-destabilising loads has been determined:
stress (pbc). The elastic critical stress (Cs) can be expressed as:
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32 NSC October 2006