Honors Theses and Capstones

Date of Award

Spring 2022

Project Type

Senior Honors Thesis

College or School

CEPS

Department

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Program or Major

Civil Engineering

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

First Advisor

Raymond Cook

Abstract

The honors thesis project I have been working on is called An Examination of Effective Length in Moment Frame. When loaded axially in compression columns experience a failure mode in compression that axially loaded members don’t experience in tension. This failure mode, elastic column buckling, doesn’t involve yielding or rupture; the column changes shape and deforms to the side. In order to come up with a solution to this failure mode, Leonhard Euler developed the critical buckling load equation. However, this equation uses an effective length of columns, which is the distance between two points of zero moment, or inflection points. This is found by multiplying an effective length factor, K, by the column length. The K factor has been found using a nomograph that is strictly based off the columns section properties and only accounts for axial loads. In a moment frame however, patterned live loads can cause joint rotation, which the nomograph does not account for. Increased joint rotation would theoretically change what the effective length of the column is.

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