Elastic Critical Load and Effective Length Factors of Continuous Compression Member by Beam Analogy Method

The critical load of a continuous compression member was determined by the beam-analogy method. The proposed method utilizes the stress-analysis results of the analogous continuous beam, where imaginary concentrated lateral load changing its direction is applied at each midspan. The proposed method gives a lower bound error of critical load and can predict the span that buckles first. The effective length factors for braced frame columns can be easily determined by the present method, but result in the upper bound errors in all cases, which can lead to a conservative structural design.