Distortional buckling of thin-walled inclined lipped channel beams bending about the minor axis

Based on the Generalised Beam Theory (GBT), two computing models are presented to analyse the distortional critical stress of cold-formed thin-walled inclined lipped channel beams bending about the minor axis. The computing model of rigid-body motion ignores the transverse bending deformation of the flange. However, the bending deformation of the flange is accounted for in the transverse bending computing model. Based on the transverse bending computing model, this paper puts up a simple method to take into account the in-plane bending of the flange. The results given by the rigid-body motion computing model does not correlate as well as those given by the transverse bending computing model with the results available in the literature. The accuracy of the transverse bending computing model is verified through comparison of its results with the known results. The comparisons demonstrate the importance of the bending deformation of the flange on the distortional buckling of cold-formed thin-walled channel beams bending about the minor axis. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.