Buckling resistance assessment of steel I-section beam-columns not susceptible to LT-buckling

The authors focused on buckling resistance assessment of steel-I-section perfect beam-columns of the cross-section class 1 and 2, not susceptible to LT-buckling and subjected to compression and one directional bending about the section principal axes y–y or z–z. These assumptions lead to the case of elements considered as only sensitive to the flexural failure including second order in-plane bending and compression. The stability behaviour of elements subjected to different bending configurations and different static schemes was investigated through comprehensive numerical study with use of the finite element method. Geometrically and materially nonlinear analyses GMNA in case of perfect beam-columns and GMNIA fo the imperfect ones were carried out in reference to shell and beam element models. Static equilibrium paths accounting for pre- and post-limit behaviour were determined with use of the incremental-iterative algorithm taking into consideration displacement-control parameters. An analytical formulation for a quick verification of the perfect I-section beam-column resistance is proposed. Finally, the global effect of imperfections is also investigated using GMNIA. The verification method developed for perfect elements is extrapolated for imperfect beam-columns. The good agreement of the proposed analytical formulation is shown through an extensive comparison with more than 3500 results of finite element numerical simulations conducted with use of ABAQUS/Standard program.