Crush response of an inclined beam-column

Crush response of an inclined, inelastic clamped-sliding beam is investigated in this paper based on the assumption that the material elastic-plastic, nonlinear strain-hardening stress-strain relation is of a power-law form. Analytical expressions for crush resistance, deformation, bending moment, and energy are obtained in the form of definite integrals. A simple analytical model consisting of three fixed plastic hinges and two straight rigid bars is also developed showing rather good agreement with the exact solution. Comparison with finite element solutions verifies the accuracy of the present analytical solution. Finally, the analytical solution for a single beam is extended to the case of a Hybrid Stainless Steel Assembly (HSSA) sheet, which is idealized as a complex system of many inclined beams sandwiched between two face sheets. Based on the probability distribution of the inclination angle of the beam, the total crush resistance of the HSSA sheet is predicted. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.