ABSTRACT
This chapter presents number of different methods that are either in design codes and standards or were a result of extensive research, and explains their scopes of application. The limiting temperature method has already been mentioned and existing research studies indicate that this method is reasonable for uniformly heated thin-walled steel members. Steel members in floor panels will be under bending so the effects of thermal bowing are negligible. Also because the steel members will be restrained by panel boards at regular intervals, global buckling behaviour of the steel members is controlled by spacing of the restraints. In Europe, the effective width method is used to calculate the resistances of thin-walled steel members at ambient temperature. For thin-walled members with non-uniform temperature distribution under compression, additional bending moments will be generated due to thermal bowing and shift of centre of resistance of the cross-section.
