EFFECT OF VARIATION OF BRACING ON THE BUCKLING STRENGTH OF STRUCTURAL FRAMEWORKS

Abstract

The mam rum of this research is to study the effect of bracing system, the location of bracing system, the number of bracing bays and the spacing between bracing bays on the structure stability. A Stiffness method is introduced to study the elastic buckling behaviour of the members by computing their stability functions to modify the stiffness matrices. A computer program to determine the elastic critical buckling loads of structural frameworks is developed and has been verified by comparing its results with several published cases besides the results of Sap2000 program to check its accuracy. Fixed as well as hinged base frames with various beam span to column height ratios braced with different types and number of bracing bays have been studied. The effect of the axial stiffness of the bracing elements is taken into account. The bracing elements are assumed to act in tension as well as in compression. Frames with different types of imperfections in columns and bracing as well as eccentrically connected bracing are also studied. Herein, the elastic buckling loads of different types of multi-storey frames subjected to different lateral to vertical load ratios are determined.