A technique is described for manipulating strain gauge data obtained from tests on structural steel ‘H’ sections such that individual force components may be identified. The technique recognises the different structural actions present when open sections deform in a full three-dimensional fashion (compression, major and minor axis bending, and warping) covering both elastic and elastic–plastic behaviour. The results obtained from experimental tests on beam columns exhibited excellent agreement with the corresponding predictions of a sophisticated non-linear finite element analysis.

The experimental assessment of the force components within structural steel ‘h’ sections

Problems in Strength of Materials

In full- or reduced-scale tests on skeletal structures, several cross-sections are usually strain-gauged to enable strain distributions to be obtained and stress resultants to be deduced This paper explains how such measurements are best analysed, with special emphasis on the proper inclusion of longitudinal stresses associated with warping Two examples are included

M F Randolph

Papers

Analysis of strain-gauge data from thin-walled structural members subjected to eccentric longitudinal loading