Elasto-plastic optimal profile of the flanges of a double-T steel beam. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcsr.2007.11.004

Abstract

For a given amount of steel we look for the optimalprofile of the width of the symmetrical flanges of adouble-Tsteelbeam, in order to optimize a weighted compromise between elastic performance, measured by the compliance, and collapse factor. We approximately determine curves of optimalprofiles when varying the relative weight given to each performance measure and use these profiles to obtain a plot showing the variation of the ductility and the collapse factor as functions of the relative weights. The steel is assumed elastic-perfectly plastic.