CHAPTER 3:

BENDING MEMBERS
 General
- The usual requirement for a beam design is to provide
sufficient resistance to bending moment
- However in some cases it is also necessary to consider
other criteria such as shear or lateral-torsional buckling
- In general, to design such members, the structure should
be checked for the following at critical sections;
1. Combination of bending and shear force
2. Deflection
3. Lateral restraint
4. Local buckling
5. Web bearing and buckling
 Types of restraining
condition of beam
1. Restrained beam
A beam where the compression flange is
restrained against lateral deflection and rotation.
Only vertical deflection exists.
2. Unrestrained beam
The compression flange is not
restrained from deflect laterally
and rotate about the plan of the
section which is called lateral
torsional buckling.
Three component of
displacement i.e. vertical,
horizontal and torsional
displacement
 Laterally restrained beam
Cases where beams can be designed as fully restrained
along the spans:
1. Beams carrying in-situ reinforced concrete slabs.
The friction of concrete floor to the compression flange of
the beam can be assumed to provide full lateral restraint
(Figure 3.1).
2. Beams with steel decking flooring system, with or without
shear studs or by sufficient bracing member added.
The shear studs function as a simple concrete anchor and
can be employed to provide a permanent bond between
steel and concrete; enabling the two materials to act
compositely (i.e steel beam and concrete slab can act as
one component) Figure 3.2.
As a result of full lateral restraint along the
compression flange of the beam, bending will
only take place about y-x plane.

In other words, the beam is prevented from

moving sideways. Hence, the beam deforms in
the vertical plane only.
 Beam

Restrained beam Unrestrained beam

Load Distribution
 One-way Spanning Slab

Ly/Lx  2.0

Ly
Beam

Baem
Beam

Lx
Slab

Beam
One-way Spanning Slab
 Two-way Spanning Slab
Ly/Lx  2.0
Ly
Beam
Beam

Baem
Lx
Slab

Beam
Two-way Spanning Slab
 Precast Concrete Slab
Ly/Lx  2.0, one-way slab
Precast concrete
Ly/Lx  2.0, one-way slab
hollow-core
SLAB

Ly
Ly
Lx
Lx

Ly/Lx  2.0, Ly/Lx  2.0,

one-way slab one-way slab
Precast Concrete Slab

One way
direction
One way
direction

One-way spanning slab

 Cast In-situ Slab
Cast-insitu slab Ly/Lx  2.0, one-way slab
Ly/Lx  2.0, two-way slab

Ly Ly

Lx Lx

Ly/Lx  2.0,
Ly/Lx  2.0,
one-way slab
two-way slab
 Beam-to-column
connection

SECONDARY
BEAM

FLOOR PLAN

MAIN BEAM

Main
beam Secondary
Column beam
Main
beam
Main beam Secondary
beam
 Example 3.1: Load distribution
Figure below shows a portion of plan view of a building. The slab
system is precast slab with loading as below:
Permanent action, Gk
- self weight of precast slab, brick wall and furnishing = 5.0kN/m2
Variable action, Qk = 4.0kN/m2
Determine the shear force and moment maximum for beam 1/A-B.

I I 1
Pre-cast
4.0m
panel
I 5.0m
I 2
A B
Design checks for laterally restrained beam
• Shear resistance, Clause 6.2.6
• Bending moment resistance, Clause 6.2.5
• Deflection
Shear resistance, Clause 6.2.6
The design shear resistance of a cross-section,
(Clause 6.2.6 EC3) , is denoted by Vc,Rd,

VEd
Shear check  1 .0
Vc ,Rd
In the absence of torsion, the shear resistance may be taken as
the design plastic shear resistance, V pl, Rd

The plastic shear resistance is basically defined as the yield

strength in shear multiplied by a shear area Av (Clause 6.2.6(3).

A Main beam

Av ( f y / 3 )
V pl , Rd 
 M0 A

Column

≈ 0.6 fy
The yield strength in shear is taken as fy/√3 and this is used in a
plastic shear resistance formulation.
 Shear buckling
The resistance of the web to shear buckling should
also be checked, though this is unlikely to affect cross-
sections of standard hot-rolled proportions.

Shear buckling need not be considered provided:

hw 
 72 for unstiffene d webs
tw 

235
where   ;   1.0 ( from UK NA)
fy
Example 3.2: Shear resistance
Assignment 2
Bending moment resistance,
Clause 6.2.5
 Bending and shear
(Clause 6.2.8)
• Bending moment and shear force acting in
combination on structural members is
commonplace.
• However, in the majority of cases (particularly
when standard rolled section are adopted), the
effect of shear force on moment resistance is
negligible and may be ignored.
• Clause 6.2.8(2) states that if the applied shear
force is less than half the plastic shear resistance,
its effect on the moment resistance may be
neglected
For cases where the applied shear force is greater than
half the plastic shear resistance of the cross section, the
moment resistance should be calculated using a reduced
design strength for the shear area, given by the equation;
fyr = (1-ρ)fy
where ρ = [(2VEd/Vpl,Rd)-1)2

for VEd > 0.5Vpl,Rd

Vpl,Rd may be obtained from Clause 6.2.6 and when torsion

is present, it should be replaced by Vpl,T,Rd obtained from
Clause 6.2.7.
For I-cross section with equal flanges and bending
about major axis, the reduced design plastic
resistance moment allowing for the shear force
may be alternatively be obtained from;

where, Aw = hw tw
 Example 3.3: Cross-section resistance
under combined bending and shear
A short-span (1.4m), simply supported, laterally
restrained beam is to be designed to carry a central
point load of 1050kN as shown in Fig.1. The
arrangement resulted in a maximum design shear
force VEd of 525kN and a maximum design bending
moment MEd of 367.5kNm. In this example a
406x178x74 UB in grade S275 steel is assessed for
its suitability for this application.
 Deflection
Excessive deflections may impair the function of a
structure, for example, leading to cracking of
plaster, misalignments of crane rails, causing
difficulty in opening doors, etc.

From the UK National Annex, NA 2.23 & 2.24,

deflection checks should be made under
unfactored variable actions Qk.
Table A1.4 (EN 1990): Design value of actions for use in
the combination of actions
 Vertical deflection limits, NA.2.23

NA to BS EN 1993-1-1:2005
Design situation Deflection limit
Cantilevers Length/180
Beams carrying plaster or other brittle finish Span/360
Other beams (except purlins and sheeting rails) Span/200
Purlins and sheeting rails To suit cladding
 Horizontal deflection limits NA.2.24

NA to BS EN 1993-1-1:2005
Design situation Deflection limit
Tops of columns in single storey buildings, except portal
Height/300
frames
Columns in portal frame buildings, not supporting crane
To suit cladding
runways
In each storey of a building with more than one storey Height of storey/300

u is overall horizontal displacement over the

building height H
ui is horizontal displacement over a storey
height Hi
 Example 3.4 Deflection

A simply supported roof beam of span 5.6m is

subjected to the following (unfactored) loading:
- Dead load: 8.6kN/m
- Imposed roof load: 20.5kN/m
- Snow load: 1.8kN/m
Choose a suitable UB such that the vertical
deflection limits are not exceeded.
 Example 3.5: Restrained Beam Design

The simply supported 610 x 229 x 125 UB of S275

steel shown below has a span of 6m. Check moment
resistance, shear and deflection of the beam.
 Resistance of the web to
transverse force
-Refer to BS EN 1993-1-5 Clause 6
• Design calculations are required for concentrated
transverse forces applied to girders from supports,
cross beams, columns, etc.
• The concentrated loads are dispersed through
plates, angles and flanges to the web of the
supporting girder.
The deformation that occur to the supporting beam
due to transverse concentrated load: yielding of
flange and local buckling of the web
The design resistance is expressed as:
 Example 3.6
The beam shown below is fully laterally restrained
along its length and has bearing length of 50mm at the
unstiffened supports and 75mm under the point load.
Design the beam in S275 steel for the loading shown
below.
Given:
Actions (loadings),
Permanent actions:
Uniformly distributed load (including self weight) g1 = 15kN/m
Concentrate load G1 = 40kN

Variable actions:
Uniformly distributed load q1 = 30kN/m
Concentrate load Q1 = 50kN

The variable actions are not due to storage and are not
independent of each other
STEP:
1)Load, MEd, VEd
2)Cross-section classification
3)Shear resistance (also shear buckling)
(6.2.6)
4)Bending moment resistance (6.2.5) and also
check bending & shear (6.2.8)
5)Resistance of the web to transverse forces
- only required when there is bearing on the
beam (refer to BS EN 1993-1-5 Clause 6 –
Resistance to transverse force)
6)Deflection
 Laterally unrestrained beam
• Lateral torsional buckling is the member buckling
mode associated with slender beams loaded about
their major axis, without continuous lateral
restraint.
• The prime factors that influence the buckling
strength of beams are un-braced span, cross
sectional shape, type of end restraint and
distribution of moment.
Cross-sectional and member bending
resistance must be verified
 Lateral Torsional Buckling (LTB)

It exhibits vertical movement

(bending about y-y axis),
lateral displacement
(bending about z-z axis) and
rotation (about x-x axis).

It occurs when the buckling

resistance about z-z axis
and torsional resistance
about the x-x axis are low.
LTB is considered to be prevented if the
compression flange is prevented from moving
laterally.

Thus, intersection member or frictional restrained

from floor units can prevent lateral movement of the
compression flange.

For this beam failure will occur in another mode,

generally in-plane bending (and/or shear).
 Characteristics of LTB
– Initially the beam bends about the major axis.
– As the load increases the sideway displacement occurs.
– Twisting of cross section
– The sideway displacement bends about the minor axis.
– The way to prevent LTB is to have adequate lateral
bracing at the compression flange at adequate intervals
along the beam.

Check should be carried out on all unrestrained segments of

beams (between the points where lateral restraint exists).
 Design Buckling Resistance, Mb,Rd
(Clause 6.3.2.1)
• The design buckling resistance of an
unrestrained beam (or unrestrained
segment of beam) should be taken as
 3 Methods to Check LTB
1. The primary method adopts the lateral torsional
buckling curves given by equations 6.56 and 6.57
from Clause 6.3.2.2 (general case) and Clause
6.3.2.3 (for rolled sections and equivalent welded
sections).
2. A simplified assessment method for beams with
restraints in buildings, Clause 6.3.2.4
3. The third is a general method for lateral and lateral
torsional buckling of structural components, given
in Clause 6.3.4.
 Method 1: Lateral torsional buckling
curves (6.3.2.2 &6.3.2.3)
For the general case (6.3.2.2)

For rolled or equivalent welded sections case

(6.3.2.3)
 (6.3.2.2)

(6.3.2.3)

αLT – refer Table 6.3 and 6.4

 Elastic critical moment for lateral
torsional buckling, Mcr
• EC3 offers no formulations and gives no guidance
on how Mcr should be calculated

• It only mentioned in Clause 6.3.2.2(2) that Mcr

should be based on gross cross sectional properties
and should take into account the loading conditions,
the real moment distribution and the lateral restraints
The Mcr of a beam of uniform symmetrical cross-section with
equal flanges, under standard conditions of restraint at each
end loaded through the shear centre and subject to uniform
moment is given by equation:

For uniform doubly-symmetric cross-sections, loaded through

the shear centre at the level of the centroidal axis and with the
standard conditions of restraint, Mcr may be calculated by:
Standard condition of restraint at each end of the
beam: restrained against lateral movement,
restrained against rotation about the longitudinal axis
and free to rotate on plan.

C1 factor: used to modify Mcr,0 (Mcr = Mcr.,0) to take

account of the shape of bending moment diagram.
C1 factor for end moment may be
approximated by equation:

where Ψ is the ratio of end moment from

Table 6.11 and 6.12
Table 6.11: C1 values for end moment loading
Table 6.12: C1 values for transverse loading
Condition of restraints and
Effective length
 Design procedure for LTB
check
1. Determine effective(buckling) length Lcr – depends on
boundary conditions and load level
2. Calculate Mcr
3. Non-dimensional slenderness, λLT
4. Determine imperfection factor, α LT
5. Calculate buckling reduction factor, χLT
6. Design buckling resistance, Mb,Rd
7. Check for each unrestrained portion
 Example 3.7: Lateral torsional
buckling resistance
A simply supported beam is required to span 10.8m and to
support two secondary beams as shown in Figure 1. The
secondary beams are connected through fin plates to the web
of the primary beam and full lateral restraint may be assumed
at these points. Select a suitable member for the primary
beam assuming grade S275 steel.
Section properties for a 762 x 267 x 173 UB
 CONCLUSION
Restrained beam
1. Design load, Design shear force, VEd, Design bending
moment, MEd
2. Cross-section classification
3. Bending moment resistance – Cl. 6.2.5
4. Shear resistance – Cl. 6.2.6
- check also shear buckling
5. Combined bending and shear – Cl. 6.2.8
6. Deflection – Actual deflection < Deflection limit
7. Resistance to transverse force – EC3-1-5 Cl. 6.
- only applied for beam with bearing
Unrestrained beam
1. Same as restrained beam
2. Same as restrained beam
3. Same as restrained beam
4. Same as restrained beam
5. Same as restrained beam
6. Same as restrained beam
7. Buckling resistance in bending – Cl. 6.3.2