Comparison Between two Methods to Calculate In-plane Effective Lengths of Uniform Crane Columns in Mill Building Frames

摘要

Uniform section columns with corbel are sometimes adopted to support the crane in certain mill buildings frame. Calculating the effective length of these columns with corbel loading in the framed plane, customarily the loads are reduced to the situation that the loads are concentrated on top of the same columns. In fact, because most of the loading acts on the middle of the column, its stability capacity would be higher than that with concentrated top loading. Two methods for determining the effective length of columns with corbel in the framed plane are investigated in this paper. Because there is a formula without being demonstrated strictly in the first approach, the second method is used to contrast and validate. From the result of an example, it is found that the two methods have few discrepancies and can indicate that the first method can greatly facilitate the design of uniform crane columns.