APPLICATION OF FLEXURAL METHODS TO TORSIONAL ANALYSIS OF THIN-WALLED OPEN SECTIONS.

Abstract

In a typical thin-walled open member, such as a rolled or cold-formed steel section, warping normal stresses tend to be the critical torsional stress component. A method is presented here where the more general bending-warping analogy is applied to solution of warping torsional stresses in prismatic thin-walled members of arbitrary open cross-section continuous over any number of supports. Solution of warping stresses by these methods is analogous to the more familiar methods of flexural analysis, and in many cases the methods of flexural analysis can be applied directly to solution of warping stresses.