• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.225-237
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• 2006

Based on the study conducted by Kim et al. (205a, b), an improved stability design method for evaluating the effective buckling lengths of beam-column members is proposed herein, using system elastic/inelastic buckling analysis and second-order elastic analysis. For this purpose, the stress-strain relationship of a column is inversely formulated from the reference load-carrying capacity proposed in design codes, so as to derive the tangent modulus of a column as a function of the slenderness ratio. The tangent stiffness matrix of a beam-column element is formulated using the so-called "stability functions," and elastic/inelastic buckling analysis Effective buckling lengths are then evaluated by extending the basic concept of a single simply-supported column to the individual members as one component of a whole frame structure. Through numerical examples of several structural systems and loading conditions, the possibilities of enhancement in stability design for frame structures are addressed by comparing their numerical results obtained when the present design method is used with those obtained when conventional stability design methods are used.