Arches resist general loading by a combination of axial compression and bending actions. Under these actions, an arch loaded in-plane may suddenly deflect laterally and twist out of the plane of loading and fail in a lateral buckling mode. This paper investigates the inelastic lateral buckling strength and design of steel arches under general loading using an advanced nonlinear inelastic finite element method fo analysis. It is found that the subtended angle and load distribution significantly affect the lateral buckling strength of a steel arch. The effects of initial crookedness and twist and residual stresses on the strengths of arched are also important. The rules for designing steel beam-columns against inelastic lateral buckling coannot be used directly in the deisgn of steel arches against inelastic lateral buckling under generl loading becuase they do not include the effects of the subtended angle and the laod distribution. The design rules develpoped in this paper provide conservation predictions for the lateral buckling strengths of steel arches under general loading, and offer considerable economies.
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