Elasto-plastic behavior of compression members laterally-braced at an intermediate point

In the design of a steel compression member, it is sometimes braced at an arbitrary intermediate point to increase the strength by decreasing the effective buckling length. A total of 38 specimens of the eccentrically-loaded compression members elastically-braced at an intermediate point were tested, and the elasto- plastic behavior was analyzed by the method which sought for the deflected shape satisfying the equilibrium at the subdivision points along the member length. The effect of experimental parameters, i.e., normalized slenderness ratio, position of the brace and brace stiffness on the behavior of deflection reversal, bracing force ratio and maximum strength were investigated.