The Lateral Buckling of Beams Having Discrete Intermediate Restraints

The paper examines the lateral stability of beams which are supported at points within their length by elastic restraints capable of providing lateral, torsional or combined
restraint. Relationships are provided between the buckling load and non-dimensional lateral and torsional restraint stiffness parameters. The increase in stability resulting from the use of bracing capable of providing both types of restraining action is shown fo be considerable, restraints only a few times as 'stiff' as the beam itself being capable of providing 'complete support' i.e. inducing nodes at the restrained cross-sections. Charts are presented which give the theoretical limiting values which the restraint stiffnesses should have in order to provide 'complete support'. For torsional restraints the influence of the method of attachment is also considered in some detail.

D.A. Nethercot and K.C. Rockey