LINEAR AND NONLINEAR THERMOELASTIC ANALYSES OF BEAMS UNDER TEMPERATURE GRADIENT

In a structure, beams are often connected with other members such as columns, which provide considerable restraints against the rotation and extension of the beam ends. When a beam is subjected to an in-plane temperature gradient field, the temperature gradient tends to change the curvature of the beam in the transverse direction and expand the beam in the axial direction. The restrained actions will produce bending moments and compressive forces in the beam, which increase with an increase of the temperature differential and average temperature of the temperature gradient field. When these actions reach critical values, the elastically restrained beam may bifurcate from its primary in-plane equilibrium state to a lateral-torsional buckled equilibrium configuration. This paper carries out linear and nonlinear thermoelastic analyses of an elastically restrained beam of doubly symmetric open thin-walled cross-section that is subjected to a linear temperature gradient field over its cross-section. It is found that geometric nonlinearity influences the thermoelastic responses of the beam to the temperature changes significantly. The influence decreases with an increase of the stiffness of the elastic restraints.