Development of an interactive design and analysis program for steel beam-columns

The thesis presented describes the theoretical background, purpose and examples of a graphics-oriented, event-driven program BeCol developed for the analysis and design of steel beam-columns.;As an educational tool, BeCol generates, by Newmark's method the in-plane strength interaction curves for I-shapes (with or without residual stresses), HSS and rectangular sections, to illustrate the effects of a non-uniform moment field and to evaluate the equivalent moment factor ;As a design tool, BeCol designs any doubly symmetric, prismatic steel beam-column, for any number of load combinations and cross-section types in accordance with Canadian Limit State Design standards, CAN/CSA S16.1-M89, S16.1-94. The design rules calculate the capacity of Class 4 sections in accordance with CAN/CSA-S136-M89 and calculate the appropriate bending moment diagrams and lateral torsional buckling capacity (including interactive buckling) for the specified lateral supports. All applicable interaction curves and an engineering report will be displayed for any section selected from this list.;As a research tool and an advanced design tool, specially developed finite element analysis was included in BeCol to determine beam-column behaviour, particularly for members with singly symmetric or asymmetric cross-sections and complicated boundary and loading conditions. A graphical interface was developed for problem definition, mesh generation and post-processing of results. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).