Finite Element Analysis On The Stability In Plane Of Tapered Portal Frame

In recent years,light-weight steel structure has been developed thriftily.As one of the most important kind of light-weight steel structure,portal frame can be seen everywhere.Many portal frames are designed with tapered section so as to adapt to the change of the bending moment and save the steel.The stability of this kind of structure is considered with an approximate method .As the tapered-section member extends increasingly ,it's very necessary to find an exact method to consider its stability.This paper gives a non-liner analysis to the stability of the tapered-section column with considering many factors ,and compares the results between the finite element method and the code method.This paper compiles a program based on ANSYS software which can deal with pre-processing ,solving and post-processing automatically ,and calculate the ultimate carrying capacity of the column considering all kinds of factors .It certainly can calculate the uniform-section column as a special instance of the tapered-section column.