Axial loads of load bearing elements impact on the vibration characteristics. Several methods have been developed to quantify the axial loads and hence axial deformations of individual structural members using their natural frequencies. Nevertheless, these methods are unable to apply to individual members in structural framing systems as the natural frequency is a global parameter for the entire framing system. This paper proposes an innovative method which uses strain energy phenomenon to quantify axial deformations of load bearing elements of structural framing systems. The procedure is illustrated through examples and results confirm that the proposed method has an ability to quantify the axial deformations of individual elements of structural framing systems.

Key words: Strain Energy Phenomenon, Axial Deformation, Finite Element Method, Pre-stressed Modal Analysis