Design of Crane Runway Beam with Channel

Abstract

A common practice in industrial buildings is to weld a channel, open side down, to the top flange of a standard rolled beam for use as a crane runway. In many cases, it is not possible to brace a crane runway laterally between columns, so the channel provides additional lateral stiffness. There are several interesting structural questions associated with the practice, like, what should be the welding pattern? How are the residual stresses affected? What if the channel has a yield strength different from the beam? However, the primary question addressed in this paper is, how does one check such a beam for lateral-torsional buckling?