Link to Index Page

Some buckling modes for two prismatic structures

FROM:
Fernando Pedro Simões da Silva Dias Simão,

“Post-buckling bifurcational analysis of thin-walled prismatic members in the context of the generalized beam theory”, Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Coimbra, Portugal, May 2007

ABSTRACT: This thesis presents a series of analytical models, based on the Generalized Beam Theory (GBT), to describe the buckling and post-buckling behaviour of thin-walled prismatic cold-formed steel structural members under compression and/or bending. GBT has a unique feature of enabling an theoretical significance to the structural analysis of these members, which can not be achieved by any other known method. Initially, a review of the current state of the art in GBT is carried out, together with a review on the most recent bibliography of alternative methods for post-buckling analysis of thin-walled structures, allowing to define the specific goal of the present work – the setting up of a consistent GBT-based methodology for post-buckling analysis. Next, a consistent formulation based on the concept of Total Potential Energy in the framework of the classical GBT theory, for post-buckling analysis, was created, enabling the rigorous study of open non-branched and closed mono-cellular sections. Subsequently, a series of refinements in the GBT theory and in the adopted numerical strategies, namely in the Rayleigh-Ritz method and in the bifurcational calculus techniques, were made in order to analyze the perfect structural member, without making resource to imperfections, made by plane plates rigidly connected along the folding lines with a general cross section. Finally, the developments were illustrated and validated by the resolution of several examples, which were compared to other methods of analysis for the critical behaviour and for the post-buckling equilibrium paths, like the Finite Strip and the Finite Elements Method.

Page 50 / 77