Experimental techniques to study the ultimate load behaviour of beams curved in plan

This paper is concerned with the experimental study of the ultimate load behaviour of steel I-beams curved in plan. Studies were carried out on two sets of I-beams (one set comprised rolled sections while the other set built-up sections). Each beam was subjected to a concentrated load applied at an intermediate point where the beam was laterally restrained. The experimental techniques used in the investigation of the behaviour of such beams with special emphasis on instrumentation are described and the results are presented and compared with the results obtained by finite element analysis.