General Formulation for the Buckling Resistance of Uniform and Non‐Uniform Slender I‐Section Beams

Abstract The General Formulation has proven to be a practical, design‐focused solution for the stability design of different member configurations ‐ built‐up or not, uniform or non‐uniform, with complex or simple support conditions. It was recently extended for mono‐symmetric I‐section beams, but its applicability to slender section members remains unexplored. This work aims to expand the scope of the General Formulation to include Class 4 I‐section beams. A numerical model was calibrated to assess the lateral‐torsional buckling resistance of beams. A parametric study was conducted on S690 HSS slender I‐section beams under uniform bending moment, considering different cross‐sections, normalized slenderness, prismatic and non‐prismatic beams, simply‐supported and arbitrary boundary conditions. Finally, the numerical results were compared to the analytical ones of the General Formulation and Eurocode 3, supporting the applicability of the General Formulation due to its good correlation with the numerical model.