Effect of width depth (bf d)‎ section ratio and curvature on the behavior of horizontally curved steel beam

Abstract EN

The aim of this research is to study the effect of the width to depth ratio (bf / d) and the curvature of the steel I-section horizontally curve beams on their ultimate strength and the statical response.

The research adopts three – dimensional nonlinear finite element analysis of steel I-section horizontally curved beams under static load.

The twenty-node isoparametric brick element has been used to represent the steel element ; also, the Von-Mises yield criterion is used to compute the stress level of plastic deformation.

Elastic-perfect plastic model is used to represent the behavior of steel under tension and compression stresses.

Thirty beams have been analyzed with the same length, mesh, material properties and boundary conditions.

The effect of bf / d ratio is considered by taken different values (0.5-2.5) with the same area of cross section.

Also, the effect of curvature was studied by considering different values from beam with half circle to straight beam.

It is obtained that the change of (bf / d) ratio reveals that the load-carrying capacity increasing about 30-50 % when the ratio changed from (1) to (2) for the same area.

So, it is found that the change of (bf / d) ratio is more effectively when the curvature is high.

The results appear that the (bf / d) ratio equal to 1.5-2 is optimum for different values of curvature.