The thesis "Stability of tapered steel frames" is dealing with the numerical implementation of the three-dimensional shear flexible beam theory in MatLAB. The shear flexible beam theory is derived and implemented in a MatLAB code where it is continually verified and compared with analytical and numerical solutions from commercial FEM programs.
The MatLAB code takes into consideration the beam elements with variable cross sectional properties by numerical integration. It is gradually extended to be able to handle lateral buckling, which results in axial deformations in the form of warping.
There have been modeled 4 different types of corner joints in which the transfer of warping is investigated. It has been observed that the activation of warping degree of freedom makes structures more stiff resulting in better utilization of materials and thereby a better bearing capacity compared to the traditional design techniques.