Effects of load height application and pre-buckling deflections on lateral buckling of thin-walled beams

Based on a non-linear model taking into account flexural-torsional couplings, analytical solutions are derived for lateral buckling of simply supported I beams under some representative load cases. A closed form is established for lateral buckling moments. It accounts for bending distribution, load height application and pre-buckling deflections. Coefficients $C_1$ and $C_2$ affected to these parameters are then derived. Regard to well known linear stability solutions, these coefficients are not constant but depend on another coefficient $k_1$ that represents the pre-buckling deflection effects. In numerical simulations, shell elements are used in mesh process. The buckling loads are achieved from solutions of eigenvalue problem and by bifurcations observed on non linear equilibrium paths. It is proved that both the buckling loads derived from linear stability and eigenvalue problem lead to poor results, especially for I sections with large flanges for which the behaviour is predominated by pre-buckling deflection and the coefficient $k_1$ is large. The proposed solutions are in good agreement with numerical bifurcations observed on non linear equilibrium paths.