Lateral buckling of I-section composite beams

Lateral buckling of a laminated composite beam with I-section is studied. A general analytical model applicable to the lateral buckling of an I-section composite beam subjected to various types of loadings is developed. This model is based on the classical lamination theory, and accounts for the material coupling for arbitrary laminate stacking sequence configuration and various boundary conditions. The effects of the location of applied loading on the buckling capacity are also included in the analysis. A displacement-based one-dimensional finite element model is developed to predict critical loads and corresponding buckling modes for a thin-walled composite beam with arbitrary boundary conditions. Numerical results are obtained for thin-walled composites under central point load, uniformly-distributed load, and pure bending with angle-ply laminates. The effects of fiber orientation, location of applied load, and types of loads on the critical buckling loads are parametrically studied.