Lateral Torsional Buckling of Reinforced Concrete Beams

(Research Summaries)
By PhD student: Mariwan Mirhaj M.Salih

Supervised by: Dr. Shuokr Qarani

Recently, concrete beams with increased span lengths and slenderer sections evolved into
construction sector and hence lateral-torsional buckling (LTB) grabs attention of more
researchers than before. In their study on torsional rigidities of reinforced concrete (RC) beams
subjected to elastic (LTB), Kalkan and Kartal (2017) investigated the effect of concrete
cracking on the torsional rigidities of slender RC beams at the time of buckling with the aim of
achieving more accurate estimates of buckling moments. For that purpose, they compared their
experimental torsional-rigidity values of a set of eight slender RC beams tested at buckling to
analytical uncracked and cracked rigidity expressions proposed by code(s) and/or other
researchers. They found that slender RC beams at the time of buckling were totally uncracked
revealing that accurate buckling moment estimates in elastic LTB could be obtained provided
that the uncracked torsional rigidity values be used in the buckling moment equations.

Lateral-torsional buckling parameter for reinforced and prestressed concrete beams has also
been investigated in earlier studies such as by Hurff and Kahn (2012). Their research aimed at
providing further experimental data of LTB of RC beams, comparing the results with previous
analyses, and with a focus on deliberate imperfections due to eccentric loading conditions. The
results from experimental program were compared with analytical expressions. From the
experimental program, it was found that the lateral-torsional stability behavior proved to be
highly affected by initial imperfections and hence a simplified expression was also developed.
They revealed that the initial rotation significantly reduces the stiffness of the weak axis by
producing a greater moment in the weak-axis. A simplified equation considering the effect of
initial sweep and rotation imperfections was also accounted for and a good correlation between
both findings for predicted buckling loads were reported.

Siev (1961) also has contributed to the earliest studies in relation to LTB and presented a paper
on ''The lateral buckling of slender concrete beams'' and accounted for the effects of variations
in shape and in loading. Through experimental tests and in comparison with analytical
expressions, he showed that the stability of slender beams achieved good verifications. Siev,
furthermore, argue that perfect restraint-free beams are seldome and hence although better
agreement with theory could be obtained with more refined tests but practically this will be of
less value. Another finding from this research was that the buckling is not only affected by the
span/width ratio, but also other parameters such as width/height ratio, the percentage of
reinforcement and its distribution are all equally important.

References:
Kalkan I. and Kartal S. (2017) Torsional rigidities of reinforced concrete beams subjected to
elastic lateral torsional buckling. World Academy of Science, Engineering & Technology.
International Journal of Civil & Environmental Engineering. Vol. (11), No. (7).

Hurff J. B. & Kahn L. F., (2012) Lateral torsional buckling of structural concrete beams:
Experimental and Analytical study. Journal of Structural Engineering, Vol. (138), No. (9): pp
1138-1148.

A. Siev (1961) The lateral buckling of slender reinforced concrete beams. Magazine of
Concrete Research. Vol. (12), No. (36).