Warping influence on the resistance of uprights in steel storage pallet racks

Beam design for steel storage racks

“…It can be concluded that in the case of pallet beams, the errors associated with the adoption of design procedures neglecting the key features of non-bi-symmetric cross section members are absolutely nonnegligible, significantly greater than the ones discussed with reference to the uprights of selective pallet racks [10]. It is hence expected that both pallet and drive-rack design codes will be urgently improved, including clear and correct indications for the design of horizontal members in industrial storage rack systems.…”

“…To date attention has mainly been paid to uprights [9,10] as well as to the use of simplified approaches for the structural analysis of selective pallet racks [11]. This paper deals with pallet beam design: reference is made to lipped channel and zed members, focusing on the design criteria associated with serviceability and ultimate limit states.…”

Analysis of Flexure, Torsion and Buckling of Thin-Walled Frames with a Focus on the Joint Warping Behaviour

“…But such structures, especially those composed of open thin-walled profiles, exhibit very complex behaviour due to their susceptibility to instability occurrence and complex flexural-torsional characteristics. Furthermore, the type of structural joints and their warping flexibilities render the analysis far more complicated [5][6][7][8][9].…”

European design approaches for isolated cold-formed thin-walled beam–columns with mono-symmetric cross-section

“…Warping effects are extremely important, influencing significantly the distribution of internal forces and moments on members and joints, the set of horizontal displacements and buckling modes of the overall rack [33][34][35][36][37] for static as well as for seismic design.…”

“…A very limited attention has been paid to the development of benchmarks for open-mono-symmetric cross-section members: references [38,39] should be considered despite the fact that they deal with cross-sections significantly different from the ones currently used in rack practice. Furthermore, verification criteria in accordance with EN 15512 ignore for routine design the key features associated with the presence of only one axis of symmetry and the coupling between flexure and torsion is considered for the sole evaluation of the critical elastic buckling load of isolated compressed columns in spite of clear indications provided in Eurocode, as discussed in [36]. A research study is currently in progress in Italy, in conjunction between the Politecnico di Milano and the University of Pavia, on the design rules currently adopted for steel storage pallet racks: final aim is to propose few essential improvements to increase the safety level of the racks.…”