Local Web Buckling of Composite (FRP) Beams

Local buckling analysis of thin-walled open or closed section fiber-reinforced plastic beams is presented. In the analysis, the web is modeled as a long orthotropic plate with rotationally restrained edges. Explicit expressions were developed for the buckling analyses of rectangular (long) plates in a companion paper. These results are applied to develop explicit expressions for the calculation of the web buckling of beams with thin-walled cross sections. At last, the applicability of the method is demonstrated by numerical examples and the results are verified by finite element calculations.