A Technical Note: A Direct Method for Obtaining the Plate Buckling Coefficient for Double Coped Beams

The AISC LRFD 3rd Edition Manual of Steel Construction presents a procedure for deep and unequal depth top and bottom coped beams which extends the procedure of the AISC LRFD 2nd Edition Manual of Steel Construction, which was limited to shallow , approximately equal depth top and bottom copes. The procedure presented in the 3rd Edition Manual involves an interpolation of values from a table to determine the plate buckling coefficient. It is the purpose of this note to present a formula for the plate buckling coefficient which eliminates this interpolation.