Columns Braced in Nonprincipal Directions

This note is concerned with the flexural buckling of a prismatic column having a single brace not parallel to either of the principal axes of the column cross section. One way is which the condition could arise would be if a single angle compression member were braced in the direction of one of its legs. The principles governing variations of this problem are developed by considering the case represented by Fig. 1. The length of the column is l, the principle axes are x-x and y-y. The column is fixed at A and Free at B except for the brace BC which is in the x-y plane. It will be assumed that I_x, the moment of inertia about the x-x axis, is smaller then I_y, the moment of inertia about the y-y axis. The smallest value of the buckling load, P, is desired.