Improved Generalized Procedure for Determining Critical State of a Thin-Walled Beam Under Combined Symmetric Loads

This paper presents an improved generalized procedure for dealing with the stability of thin-walled beams under combined symmetric loads based on the energy method. The differential equations for the case of complex loading conditions were developed using an axis transformation matrix. The work caused by external loads was related to the work of internal forces to simplify the computational procedure. The thin-walled beam subjected to axial force [Formula: see text], bending moment [Formula: see text] at both ends, and concentrated load [Formula: see text] at midspan was studied. The case of a concentrated load [Formula: see text] replaced by a distributed load [Formula: see text] over partial beam length was also examined. The stability region boundary of the beam was derived by two approaches: one was to estimate an approximate angle of twist prior to determination of the deflection and the other was to do it in the reverse way. Numerical results reveal that the first approach yields less error than the second; however, the outcome obtained by the former was more cumbersome than the latter. Above all, both approaches provided feasible results and are useful for further applications dealing with the stability analysis of thin-walled beams.