Lateral-torsional buckling of steel beams with restraints out of bending plane

The doctoral thesis focuses on problem of stability of steel thin-walled beams with lateral and torsional restraints along the spans. Theoretical background of lateral-torsional buckling of an ideal beam with and without restraints preventing out-of-plane buckling is briefly described. In the following chapters the problem of stabilization of steel thin-walled beams by planar members is dealt with. The state of the art in this field is summarized and some open questions are identified. The research in this field could bring new findings about actual behavior of these structural systems. The rate of stabilization can be quantified using values of shear and rotational stiffness provided to a thin-walled member by a planar member. In the frame of the thesis the problem of torsional restraint given to steel cold-formed members by sandwich panels under load is discussed. In case of the uplift load applied on the sandwich panels the torsional restraint should be verified by experimental analysis. To contribute to this field, experimental verification of rotational stiffness provided to steel cold-formed beams by sandwich panels was proposed and performed. Torsional restraint under no external load as well as under uplift load applied on the panels was investigated. The purpose was to obtain the values of the rotational stiffness provided by planar members. The performed tests indicate significant and practically applicable rate of the torsional restraint even in case of the uplift load on the surfaces of the panels. Utilization of the values of the rotational stiffness might result in more economical, effective and reliable structural design. Selected problems were investigated using numerical modeling in a finite element method based software