Stiffness Coefficients of Beam-Columns with Non-Prismatic Members

The objective of this paper is to determine the stiffness and carry-over factors of non-prismatic members, taking into consideration the effect of axial loads, and to construct charts that can be readily used. The method of successive approximations was used for the numerical formulation of the problem, a program in Fortran IV was written, and a high speed digital computer was used for the determination of the numerical solutions. Charts indicating the variation of stiffness and carry-over factors as a function of kL for various haunched members were plotted by the computer, where kL is a function of the axial load. The values can be readily used either for the solution of frame problems with non-prismatic members including the effect of the axial loads, or for determining the buckling loads of frames with non-prismatic members.