This paper presents a formulation of Generalised Beam Theory (GBT) intended to perform thorough first-order elastic-plastic analyses of thin-walled members subjected to arbitrary deformations and made of an isotropic non-linear material. The J2-flow theory is used to model plasticity in conjunction with the Euler-Backward return-mapping algorithm. After presenting the formulation, its application is illustrated by means of the first order analysis of a simply supported Z-section beam made of an elastic-perfectly plastic material (e.g., carbon steel) and acted by a load uniformly distributed along the flanges. The set of GBT-based results comprises the load-deflection curves (equilibrium paths), displacement profiles, stress distributions (diagrams and 3D contours), and deformed shapes (modal amplitude functions and 3D configurations). These results are compared with the ones obtained from shell finite element analyses (SFEA) using ABAQUS. It is seen that the GBT results display a very good agreement with the SFEA values.
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