BEAM-COLUMNS

• A beam column is a structural member subjected to

both bending an compression. If the axial load is
dominant, the member is treated as a column. If
the moment is dominant, the member is treated as
a beam. In a practical sense all members in a metal
frame or truss are beam columns. For the following
cases, it is assumed that neither the moment nor
the axial load dominates to the extent that the
other can be neglected.

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 Beam columns in Rigid frames

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 Beam columns in trusses

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 Behavior of beam columns

• The bending moment inside the span of the beam-

column is composed of the primary moment, or often
called the first-order moment, and the additional
moment caused by the product of the axial force and
the deflection. This is the second-order moment. It
plays an increasingly important role as the deflection
increases due to an increase in load. The relationship
between the applied loads and the resulting deflections
is nonlinear. The bending moment demands a larger
and larger proportion of the flexural capacity, until the
internal stiffness cannot keep up with the demand of
the external forces. Thus, a maximum moment is
reached.

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 Behavior of beam columns

• Beyond the deformation at the maximum moment,

the moment capacity is reduced. In case of pure
gravity loading, such as under snow load, the
attainment of the maximum capacity will result in
immediate collapse of the member, and perhaps
the whole structure. The moment-versus-end slope
behavior of a planar beam-column is illustrated in
Figure

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 Behavior of beam columns

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ELASTIC IN-PLANE BEHAVIOR OF BEAM-COLUMNS

• The first case considered is a prismatic member of

length L that is subjected at its ends by moments
Mo and Mo, where  is the ratio of the two end
moments. The range of values of  is -1  1,
where the value +1 represents
the case where the two end
moments cause single
curvature deflection
under uniform moment,
as shown in Figure
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• As mentioned before, the moment ratio is in the range -1   1.
Maximum moment multipliers  are listed for three other loading
conditions in Table 4.1. The first column depicts the structure, while
the second column gives the formula for the maximum moment
obtained from statics for the cases when the axial force is zero. The
third column is the formula for the moment magnification factor.
This factor is dependent on the axial load and the loading condition.
The axial load effect is defined by

• Each of the moment amplification factors approaches infinity as the

axial load approaches the Euler load as was discussed in initial
imperfections. The four cases in Table 4.1 are plotted in Figure 4.8.

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 Moment amplification factor

• For cases of beam columns subjected to end

moments, the amplification factors depends not
only on the magnitude of the axial force but also on
the magnitude of ratio of end moments

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 Moment amplification factor for end moments
kl P/PE ki=1 ki=0 ki=-1 cos(kl)

0.2 0.004057 1.005021 0.980067

0.4 0.016228 1.020339 0.921061

0.6 0.036513 1.046752 0.825336

0.8 0.064911 1.085704 0.696707

1 0.101424 1.139494 0.540302

1.2 0.146051 1.211628 0.362358

1.4 0.198791 1.307459 0.169967

1.6 0.259645 1.435324 1.000427 -0.0292

1.8 0.328614 1.608726 1.026855 -0.2272

2 0.405696 1.850816 1.09975 -0.41615

2.2 0.490892 2.204604 1.236864 -0.5885

2.4 0.584202 2.759704 1.480466 -0.73739

2.6 0.685626 3.738334 1.939859 -0.85689

2.8 0.795164 5.88349 2.98518 -0.94222

3 0.912816 14.13683 7.086167 -0.98999

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In summary the application of the axial load on the
deflected member causes a second order moment.
The maximum moment can be obtained by
multiplying the first order (applied) moment by a
moment amplifier. In double curvature bending, the
maximum moment is sometimes equal to the
applied end moment. In transversely loaded
members without applied end moments, the
maximum moment will occur within the span of the
beam. An approximate amplification factor was
determined empirically by Austin (1961):

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 Principle of superposition

• The principle of superposition holds for beam

columns so long as the axial force remains constant,
and the same axial force is applied to each
component of the solution.
• Table 4.3 gives slopes at the end of members for
different load cases

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 Finding slopes at the end of members

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 Solving indeterminate problems: Propped
cantilever
• Example 4.2 describes the derivation of expressions
for the moment diagram of a propped cantilever
subjected to a uniformly distributed load. Figure
4.12 illustrates the example problem; Figure 4.13
and Figure 4.14 break the problem into the simply
supported case and end-moment case, respectively.

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 Finding slopes at the end of members

• Step 2: End-Moment Case. The deflection equals

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 SAP PROBLEM

• A beam-column is subjected to an axial force P at

its ends. In addition, there are two concentrated
loads and a uniformly distributed load acting
transversely on the member. There is also a
moment applied at the left end of the member. The
geometry and loading are shown. A W14*61
section is bent about its x-axis. Determine the value
Q such that the maximum normal stress is equal to
the yield stress.
•

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 Extra pages

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• The moment diagram, that is, the moment at any
location z along the member, is shown in Figure 4.15a
for the exact solution. The nine curves represent the
effect of the axial load as it varies from 0 to 0.9PE. The
comparison between the exact (solid line) and the
approximate (dashed line) moment diagrams for
P=0.2PE, 0.4 PE and 0.6PE is given in Figure 4.15b. The
approximation is seen to give larger values of the
moment. Thus, the approximation is conservative. The
simpler approximate method is acceptably accurate for
the design office application.
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