Lateral‐torsional buckling of beams made of mono‐symmetrical thin‐walled sections

Thin‐walled cold‐formed sections are extensively used as primary structural elements in storage system structures or steel houses, or as secondary elements like roof and wall systems, floor girders, etc. Despite their many advantages, such as transportability and lightweight, these members are usually susceptible to lateral‐torsional buckling as they are not always laterally restrained.

This paper deals with the elastic stability of such beams and, in particular, is focusing on cross‐sections that are symmetrical about their major axis only, like channel or sigma profiles, and loaded perpendicular to their axis of symmetry. Their stability has been studied analytically, in accordance to available provisions in the concerned codes, and numerically with two different finite element tools.