Design of Steel Structures

8

Beam-Columns

8.1 Introduction

In a practical situation, it is very rare to find an axially loaded column. Usually, columns are subjected to both an axial load and bending moments and are known as beam-columns. Some of the common situations in which a member acts as a beam-column are described below.

1. A member may be subjected to both an axial compression and transverse loads (Figure 8.1(a))
2. The axial load may not be acting through the centroid of the cross-section i.e., at an eccentricity ‘e’ from the centroid (Figure 8.1(b))
3. The axial load not be acting on the column cross-section but transferring through a bracket or a seat (Figure 8.1(c))
4. The columns are part of rigidly jointed frames due to which bending moments are transferred from the ...