Down‐Aisle global analysis of a pallet rack frame by means of the Generalized Beam Theory

Abstract The global analysis of a pallet rack frame in the down‐aisle direction is carried out through the Generalized Beam Theory (GBT). Two different GBT models are presented. In both cases, the whole pallet rack structure is reduced to a single column or a single rack upright frame and its adjacent half‐beams. All GBT analysis takes into account most of the particularities of pallet rack structures: semi‐rigid connections, perforations, warping or sectional deformations (like distortional buckling) and relevant eccentricities. First of all, the GBT single column and single rack upright frame approaches are compared by means of an eigenbuckling analysis. Then, several GBT geometrically nonlinear analyses are carried out for both GBT approaches in order to assess the influence of the initial geometrical imperfection on the main structural results. The results indicate that the main differences are found when the torsional or antisymmetric distortional mode is relevant. Furthermore, the influence of deformation modes involved on the geometrically nonlinear analysis is also discussed. The results show that the inclusion of some local shear modes is recommended to capture the stress distribution if perforations are included into the GBT beam formulation.