A STLJDY Ol~ THE mRSIDNAL-FLEXURAL STABILITY

OF RESfR AHJ ED THJ:N-WALL ED BEAr~S

A Thesis

by

HASAN AHMAD

Submitted to the Department of Civil Engineering of

Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka
in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree
of
MAS TER D F S CIEN CE IN CIV IL EN GIN EER If\[;

December, 19B5

1111111111111111111111111111111111
#65433#
 A STUDY ON THE TORSIONAL-FLEXURAL STABILITY,

OF RESTRA I NEO THIN -WALLED BEAMS

A Thesis

by

HASA,~ AHMAD

Approved as to style and content by:

t/
~41t'
(Dr. A.M.M. r., Anwar) Chairman
Assistant Pro fessor,
Dept. of C ivi Engineering,
BUET, Dhaka.

(lJr. Sham +fi z. I~ember

Professor and Head,
Dept. of Civil Engineering,
tJUET, Dhaka.

fJt,~A:~
(Dr'.'All~~ir Habib) I~ember
Pro fessor,
Dept. of Civil Engineering,
tJUEf, Dhaka.

(Dr'. Muhammad F azli Ilahi) Member

Associate Professor, ( External)
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering,
tJUEf, Dhaka.

December, 19B5
 AtlSTRACT

fhe thesis presents a finite element analysis of the

torsional and torsional-flexural stability of restrained thin-

walled members. f hin-walled members, having low torsional

rigidity, usually buckles by torsion or by a combination of

torsion and flexure. These buckling behaviours and the effects

of linear and rotational restraints On them have been studied

in this work. The finite element approach has been generalized

to consider the influence of restraints of variable stiffnesses

placed at various locations both along the height and length

of the beam. Oifferent loading conditions and the influence

of load heights have also been considered. A computer program

has been developed to analyse the system. fhe solution procedure

and the program have been generalized further for the analysis

of restrained thin-walled curved beams.

fhe results of the analysis for various systems have been

compared with some known results and these comparisons have

shown very good agreements. A series of experiments have also

been carried out to verify the results of some of the problems

analysed theoretically. All these investigations revealed that

the increase in critical load is maximum when the restraints

are attached in the compression zone at a maximum distance

away from the shear centre and the load acts at the extremity

of tension zone. It has also been found that the critical

value of the load is not linearly related to the distance of

the point of application of the load from the shear csntre of

I
the section.
 A CKI~OWLED_GEMEI~T

The author expresses his sincere gratitude to

LJr. A.I~.I~.T. Anwar, Assistant Professor of the Department

of Civil Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering

and Technology, under whose supervision this thesis work .was

carried out. Dr. Anwar extended his helping hand by providing

constant guidance, offering valuable suggestions, encourage-

ment and inspiration on every stage of this investigation

and in preparation and writing of this report. F or all these

the author acknowledges his profound indebtedness and grati-

tude to him.

The author wishes to thank Or. Shamim Z. Bosunia,

Professor and Head, Department of Civil Engineering, for his

constant encouragement and giving the permission to use the

laboratories. He also gratefully appreciates the help rendered

by the staff of Computer C entre in conducting the computer

analysis and wishes to thank the staff of Concrete and

Structures and f~aterials laboratories of BUET for their help

in carrying out the laboratory investigations for this work.

 NO TAT ION 5

A = Area of cross-section

= Arbitrary constants

a = Nodal displacement matrix

a
z
= Distance between point of application of

load and shear centre

c = Torsional rigidity

= Warping constant

= Warping rigidity

c = Ratio of critical load of a braced beam

to that of an unbraced one

= Value of c corresponding to second mode

buckling

D = Distance between flange centroids

d = Depth of a floor

E = Modulus of elasticity

= Tangent modulus

e ,e
y z = Eccentricity of the applied load in the

y and z directions

F = Total force exerted by a lateral restraint.

F = Axial load along x-axis

x

G = Modulus of rigidity

h = Length of each element

h ,h
Y z
= C a-ordinates of the point of attachment of

the restraints

= Polar moment of inertia

 iv

I y ,I z = Moments of inertia about y and z-axes

J = Saint Venant's torsion constant

K = Generalized stiffness of restraints

KE = Element stiffness matrix

KE1,KE2, etc. = Components of element stiffness matrix

KL = Value of K for second mode buckling

K ,K
y z = Stiffnesses of linear restraints along

y and z-axes

= Torsional modulus of rotational restraint

K1 ,K 2 .. etc. = ~ondimensional ..parameters

k = Effective length factor

1 = Span of the beam

L = Differential operator

1'1 = Critical value of the applied moment

cr
r~ = Twisting moment about shear centre axis
x

My' Mz = Applied moment about the principal axes

f~y1,I~y2 = Nodal moments about y-axis

I~z 1 ' Mz 2 = Nodal moments about z-axis

N.
1
= Shape functions

n = Number of divisions
p = Applied load

p cr = C L"itical value of the applied load

p
z
,P
Y
= Euler critical load for buckling in

y and z directions
 v

P<p = Critical load for pure torsional buckling

°y1,Oy2 = Nodal forces along y-axis

°z1,Oz2 = Nodal forces along z-axis

T = Transformation matrix

u = Strain energy of the system

u,v,w = Displacement along the three coordinate axes

v = Potential of the applied loads

V 1 = Potential of the applied loads in the

prebuckling deformations

V 2 = Potential of the applied loads in the

adjacent equilibrium position

x, y" z = T he rectangular co-ordinate system

.a = Angle of inclination of the local x and

z-axes with the corresponding global axes

~1,S2"" etc. = Kinematically admissible functions

cS = Generalized displacement.

E = T he strain matrix

e = Rotation about z-axis = dv/dx

= Rotation about y-axis = dw/dx

X = d,/dx
A = K 13/(48E1 )
y z
<p = Angle of twist
 CUHEN TS,

Page
ABS TRACT, ,

A CKNO WL EDGEMEN T ii
NO TATIDI~S iii

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 General Consideration 1

1.2 Thin-Walled Members and Bracing

l1equirements 5

1.3 Objective and Scope of the Work 10

ChaF'ter 2 I1EVlEW 0 F LI TERAJURE,

2.1 Introduction 12

2.2 l1eview of Historical Developments 12

2.3 Different Solution Techniques 18

2.3.1 Formulation of Differential

Equations 18

2.3.2 Series Expansion as a Numerical

Solution Method 26
2.3.3 Finite Difference Analysis 30
2.3.4 Finite Element Analysis 33

2.3.5 0 ther Available Solutions 36

Chap ter 3 THEORETICAL INVESTIGATIOI~

3.1 Introduction 39
3.2 Analytical Model 40
3.3 Formulation of Stiffness Matrices 45
 Page

3.4 Influence of Intermediate Elastic

Restraints 53

3.5 Effect of Load Height 5B

3.6 Rearrangement of Stiffness Matrices 60

3.7 Modi fication for Curved Beams and

Arches 61

3.B Solution Technique 65

3.9 Prebuckling Elastic Analysis 6B

Chapter 4 THE [)J MPU TER P AJ GRAM

4. 1 Introduction 70

4.2 The Solution Scheme 70

4.3 Components of the Comp uteI' Program 72

4.4 The Subroutines 72

4.5 Conclusion 82

Chapter 5 NUMER IC AL ANAL YSIS AND DIg:;USSIDN S

5.1 Introduction 85

5.2 Axiall y Compressed IYJembers 85

5.2.1 Buckling by Pure Torsion 86

5.2.2 Buckling by Torsion and Flexure 89

5.3 Lateral Buckling by Equal End IYJoments 93

5.4 Lateral Buckling under Concentrated Loads 98

5.4.1 Single Concentrated Load at the

Midspan 98

5.4.2 Buckling by a Pair of Concentrated

Loads 103
 Page

5.5 Combined Influence of Load and

Restraint Levels 106

5.6 Interaction of Two Concentrated Loads 11 2

5.7 Lateral Buckling of Curved Beams 11 4

Chapter 6 EXPERIMEN TAL INV ESTIGATION AND mMPARISON

6.1 Experimental Scheme 11 7

6.2 Preparation of Test Specimens and

Accessories 117

6.3 Testing of Braced Beams 1 21

6.4 Results of Experiment and Discussions 124

6.4.1 Test with Beam of Th,in Rectangular

Oectio n

6.4.2 Test with I-Beam 126

Chapter 7 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOr~MEI\JDATIOI\JS FOR

FUTURE STUDY

7.1 General 132

7.2 Concl usions 132

7.3 Recommendations for Future Study 134

REFEREI~CES 136

APP EI\JDIX-A 141

APPEI\JlJIX-B 145
 C HAPT ER 1

1NTR OOUCT10N

1 •1 G EI~EK AL C LJ N 5 10 ER AT 10 N

Engineering structures are required to support loads,

resist forces and to transfer these loads and forces to the

foundation of the structures. The principal design require-

ments of a structure are to ensure adequate strength and

also to satisfy the serviceability criteria. This means that

a structure should have an acceptably low risk of failure

during its design lifetime. At the same time, it must have

sufficient stiffness, so that the serviceability of it is

not impaired by excessive deflections, vibrations and the

like.

Component members of a structure are classified as

tension or compression members, beams, beam-columns, etc.,

according to their nature of transmitting the applied loads.

The actual behaviour of an individualimember depends on

the forces acting on it. Tension members, for example,

behaves linearly until their material non-linearity becomes

important and a state of plastic flow is evident. Compression

members or laterally unsupported beams, on the otherhand,

may show geometric non-linearity, much earlier than they

reach the plastic state.

A member exhibits geometric non-linearity in that

the bending moments and torques acting at any section ar~

 2

influenced by the deformations as well as by the applied

forces. This non-linearity depends on the modulus of elas-

ticity E and that of rigidity G and may cause the deforma-

tions to become very large. At this stage, the limiting

condition of elastic buckling is approached and the member

becomes unstable.

In general, the term stability means the capacity of

a compression member or element to remain in position and

support load, even if forced slightly out of line or posi-

tion by an added lateral force. In the elastic range,

removal of the added lateral force would result in a return

to the prior loaded position, unless the disturbance causes

yielding to commence. However, in a relatively long compre-

ssion member a condition is reached under increasing loads,

at which the capacity for resistance to additional load is

exhausted and continued deformation results in a decrease

in load resisting capacity. The member ultimately kinks,

wrinkles, bulges or otherwise loses its original shape due

to elastic or inelastic strain and is said to have buckled.

fhe load at which this buckling of the compression member

is initiated is called the critical load.

While the buckling of a long compression member is

the general consequence of excessive loads, the mode of

buckling may be of different types. For example, columns

 3

and beam columns may buckle by flexure. torsion or by a

combination of these. For an initially straight column.

the straight form is an equilibrium form for all values

of applied load. Consequently any adjacent non straight

equilibrium form represents a secondary equilibrium confi-

guration for the corresponding load and signifies the

occurrence of a bifurcation point. Thus the critical load

for flexural instability is the smallest load at which the

column can be maintained in equilibrium in a slightly bent

form.

Buckling by torsion or by a combination of torsion

and flexure is a phenomenon that usually OCcurs in thin-

walled open section members whose torsional rigidity is

generally very low. The action of the compressive load in

causing loss of stability by twisting is illustrated in

Fig. 1.1. T his figure shows a longitudinally compressed

bar that is hinged both on the ends and along one edge and

free along the other edge. F or torsional instability, the

critical value of the compressive load is defined as the

smallest load at which the bar can be maintained in equi-

librium in a slightly twisted configuration as shown in the

figure.

The phenomenon of lateral buckling by a combination

of torsion with flexure is demonstrated in Fig. 1.2. A thin-

walled beam loaded in the plane of greatest flexural rigi~ity

 x

~p x
.~
p
y ~dX z

//~
dx
r
FIG. 1.1

TWISTING DEFORMATION CAUSED BY

A COMPRESSIVE.. AXIAL LOAD.

z p

~
l =
. ,.x z
t:

y ELEVATION I
-1---1-'
y
-w

P LA N \
SECTION
FIG.I'Z LATERAL INSTABILITY OF BEAM \
 5

buckles laterally at a certain limiting value of the load

P. T his limiting value of P is its critical value in the

sense that it is the smallest load at which the beam can

be maintained in equilibrium in a slightly deflected and

twisted form.

1.2 THIN-WALLED MEMBERS AND ffiACI~ REQUIREMENTS

41
According to V.Z. V lasov ,thin-walled structural

elements comprise bodies which have the form of long

prismatic shells. These bodies are characterized by the

fact that their three dimensions are all of different orders

of magnitude. The thickness of the shell is small compared

with any characteristic dimension of the cross section,

and the cross sectional dimensions are small compared with

the length of the shell. R oIled, welded, or riveted metallic

beams, columns, elements of girders and frames, etc. which

are widely used in structural engineering, are examples of

thin-walled members. Many spatial engineering structures

have such proportions that they can be considered as thin-

walled beam structures. Among those are certain types of

girder bridges, arched bridges with sufficiently rigid

cross ties, suspension bridges having a roadway with a

channel or I-section, long reinforced concrete ribbed,

cylindrical or prismatic shell arches, bunkers, pipe lines

 6

etc. Metal stringers, parts of frames, and other structural

memOers of aircraft and of ships can also be considered

as thin-walled beams.

As already mentioned, centrally loaded thin-walled

sections as a result of their low torsional stiffnesses can

buckle by twisting at loads well below the Euler 10ad20

Another factor that makes torsional buckling important in

thin-walled open sections is the frequent lack of double

symmetry dictated by the forming process. In such sections,

centroid and shear centre do not coincide, and therefore,

torsion and flexure interact. Again this can lead to criti-

cal loads below those calculated for pure flexural buckling.

In lateral buckling, the beam buckles sideways when loaded

in the plane of greatest flexural rigidity. However, all of

these out of plane buckling of thin-walled members may be

greatly reduced by the provision of suitable bracing. When

a bracing is not sufficiently stiff to induce a node at the

restrained cross-section, intermediate restraints may be

provided to increase the overall stability.

A typical relationship between the ratio of the elastic

critical load of a braced beam and that of a similar unbraced

beam, c, and the stiffness of the restraint, K is shown

in Fig. 1. 3. F or small values of restraint stiffness, an

increase in K produces a corresponding increase in stability.

 BUCKLING IN BUCKLING IN
FIRST MODE SECOND MODE

---------

K' KL
K , RESTRAINT STIFFNESS

FIG. 1.3

TYPICAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INCREASED

BUCKLING LOAD AND RESTRAINT STIFFNESS
 8

However, when certain limiting value of the stiffness

K ,
L
at which the critical load is equal to that corresponding

to second mode buckling, is reached, further increasffiin

K do not produce corresponding increases in c. This is

because the buckled shape no longer requires the restrained

cross-section to deflect.

Bracings are sometimes :provided to resist secondary

loads on structures such as wind bracing. However the

bracings of interest are those provided to increase the

strength of individual structural members by preventing

them from deforming in their weakest direction. These

bracings may be of different types depending on the ways

how they are used in members. The brace may act in such

a way as to prevent either lateral translation, or rotation

or both. Most arrangements can be represented by an idealised

system consisting of a translational and a rotational res-

traint.

8racing may be continuous, such as that provided by

wall panels, roof decking or floor systems, or it may be

non-continuous or discrete such as cross-bracing. Of course

for discrete bracing, in addition to strength and rigidity,

the spacing of the braced points is also important. The

cross-bracings provide restraint through axial deformation

and are often termed extensional bracing. The force in the

 9

bracing is related to the displacement of the member being

braced. Another type of bracing called shear bracing provides

restraint through resistance to~shear deformation. Here,

as in diaphragms, the forces are a function of the shear

deformation, and hence related to the slope or rate of

change of displacement of the member being braced.

The influence of restraints on the critical load of

thin-walled structures has been the centre of attraction of

researchers for many years. But it is only a few years

ago that analytical procedures had been employed to it.

These procedures, however, include different approaches

and showed the variation of critical load with different

positions of restraints. The variation of the critical

load for different location of the applied loads was also

investigated separately. Very recently, finite element

method has been used for the solution of stability problems.

Most of these works, however, dealt with the determination

of critical load of unbraced beams. 0 nly a few works, which

applied the finite element approaches to the stability of

braced structures, were also limited to the determination

of critical loads for a certain location of the restraints

and the applied loads. Again, these considered only the

lateral buckling of members due to single concentrated

loads. In this work, therefore, an attempt has been made

to study the general buckling behaviour of thin-walled

 10

braced structures for a general condition of the position

of restraints and loading. Beside straight beams and beam

columns, the theory has been further extended to consider

braced curved thin-walled beams or arches. The finite

element method has been used for this investigation and

the generality and flexibility of the analysis are discussed

in subsequent chapters.

1.3 OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE OF THE WORK

The purpose of the thesis work is to present a solu-

tion scheme based on the finite element method for the

analysis of the torsional and torsional-flexural stability

of thin-walled braced beams. The principal objectives are:

a) To generalize the finite element approach so that

all the possible modes of buckling may be treated

by a single formulation.

b) To investigate the stability of thin-walled beams

for a completely general type of restraints with

variable stiffnesses placed at various locations

ooth along the height of sections and lengtb of

beams.

c) To carryout the investigation for different loading

conditions, such as axial loads, end moments,

cOncentrated lateral loads and a combination of

I
 11

these and also to investigate the effects of

load heights~on the overall stability.

d) To extend the solution scheme further for the

analysis of restrained thin-walled curved beams.

It was decided to employ the variational formulation

of the finite element method as used by Barsoum and G allaghe.r2

to derive the required stiffness matrices. The above deriva-

tion together with the method of determining the critical

load by a standard eigenvalue solution procedure42 has been

presented in Chapter 3. A generalized computer program was

developed to achieve the above objectives. Different parts

of the computer program,developed to analyse the system

represented by the analytical model, have been discussed in

Chapter 4. Some numerical analyses were performed and veri-

fied for some particular cases comparing with known solutions.

An extended experimental scheme, described in Chapter 6,

has been undertaken to obtain experimental evidences for

some of the problems analysed theoretically. These were then

compared with the numerical results obtained by the author.

 C HAPT Ell 2

REV I EW OF 'LITEll AT UR E

2.1 INTRUUUCT ION

Structural knowledge is continually increasing and

techniques for the analysis, design, fabrication and erection

of structures are being extended or revised, while new types

of structure are being introduced. Though steel is one of

the oldest structural building materials, it is not long

ago that scientific principles had been applied to it leading

to a new concept of its design and construction. The scientific

methods involve interrelated development of theory, testing

machines, test instruments, design procedures and design

standardization. Modern column theory had its start with

Euler in 1744. At that time, structural metals were not in

engineering use and there was little need to apply column

theory in design. T he production of wrought iron and steel

in the nineteenth century made possible the development of

railroads and railway bridges and this may be considered as

the first real incentive for application of column theory in

the design of metal structures.

2.2 REV lEW UFHISTiJR IC AL DEV ELDPI'lEI~T

5

The literature on elastic stability analysis is extremely

extensive and the history of its systematic development may

1,
 13

11 20
be found elsewhere ' • However, the author wishes to

present a brief historical development of the subject matter

of his interest.

The first theoretical solution for elastic buckling

of a beam of rectangular cross-section was presented by

Prandtl for a number of load and support conditions. He

also performed ,a series of experiments and showed that the

experimental results are in good agreement with his theory.

An independent solution, parallel to Prandtl, was made by

Michell for the case of simply supported beam under constant

bending moment. T he earliest solution for lateral buckling

of a I-beam was made by T imoshenko. Bleich5 reviewed in

detail the early developments on this subject.

In 1S33, Bleich also investigated I-beams with unequal

flanges under simultaneous axial compression and equal end

moments and established the stability condition in general

forms valid in both elastic and-plastic range of failure

stresses. The theory was also applicable for the problems

of I-beams having the tension flange restrained against

lateral displacement. In 1935, Stussi suggested a solution

of the stability problem of rectangular beams and symmetric

I-beams under transverse loading by a method of successive

approximation. These theories were also confirmed by tests

for several types of loading and beam cross-section~.

 14

Oibley12 presented test results using higher strength

steels. Test methods were described by Hechtman, Adams and

, a 1 am b os 36 •
1.J

T he effects of restraints, both along the beam and at

its ends, together with its behaviour as a part of a conti-

nuous beam or frame, have received much recent attention.

In fact, towards the end of nineteenth century, the failure

of several pony truss bridges focussed attention On the top

chord buckling problem. T he compression chord of such a truss

represents members elastically supported in a horizontal

plane by the vertical web members. A girder whose flanges

are laterally restrained by a bridge floor or building roof

system provides another example of such systems.

During the early stages of the twentieth century, the

problems of the stability of elastically supported members

were investigated by Engesser, Chwalla and others. But the

treatment of the problem entered into a new era with the

introduction of the energy principles. Using this method,

Lee and also El-gaaly and Khalifa13 studied the stability of"
pony truss bridges.

1
In 1951. Flint 4 studied the effects of a central

linear or rotational elastic restraint on the lateral buck-

ling of si~ply supported beams, loaded by either equal end

 15

moments or central load. T he analysis, in which warping

effects were neglected showed that the restraints only a

few times as stiff as the beam itself are capable of indu-

35
cing large increase in stability. Years later, Schmidt

extended the scope of Flint's solution for lateral restraints

to include the interaction with torsional restraints. Once

again warping was neglected, the chief application of the

work oeing to the lateral buckling of trusses but considerable

attention was given to the influence of the level of appli-

ca;;ion of both loading and restraint. T he inclusion of warping

18
was made by Hartman ,who showed that as warping effects

became more important a stiffer restraint was required to

induce unsymmetric buckling. However, the only loading

condition considered was that of a central load applied

at the level of the shear centre, ~he restraint being assumed

to act at the same point. Torsional restraints were considered

in more detail by Taylor and 0 jalvo37 who again showed that

Oeams for which warping effects were important require~

stiffer restraints to buckle in the second mode. Although

three types of loading were included in the study, variation

in the level of ppplication of the vertical loads were.not

considered.

39
Trahair in a series of paper studied the effects of

a variety o.f restraints, both torsional and flexural, at the

ends of beams. These studies were further extended to the!

 16

consideration of beams as a part of frames or continuous

sp an 5, with various relations between the loads in adjacent

.
sp ans, P owe 11 an d K 1 ~nger 30 deve 1 ope d a compu t er program

that determines the elastic critical loads for single or

continuous wide flange beams for completely general condition

of support, load and variation of cross-section, but without

restraint. These results were in good agreements with tests

2B
made by T rahair. I~ethercot and Rockey have used an appro xi-

mate two dimensional finite element representation of lateral

buckling to study several aspects of beam problems with

lateral restraints. The influence of restraints possessing

both flexural and torsional stiffnesses was studied and

methods of predicting limiting values of restraint stiffnesses

were proposed.Later, Nethercot published another paper 26

which considered the attachment of the restraint either at

the shear centre or at the top flange. He also proposed

some approximate expressions to estimate the ratio of the

critical load of the braced beam to that of an unbraced

one ~ut considered only one intermediate restraint.

Finite element method was also used by Hancock and

T ra h.alr 17 as they treated beam columns for a combination

of continuous restraints which were uniform along the element.

At about the same time Kitipornchai and R ichter22 treated

the problem' using finite integral method. Hancock, Bradford

and T rahair 16 also used finite element method to study thel

 17

problem of web distortion and flexural-torsional buckling

of I-beams with simply supported end conditions subjected

to axial load and uniform moment. In 1982, a different

33
approach was presented by Roeder and Assadi who studied

the lateral buckling of I-beams,with restrained tension

flange.

The problem of the stability of thin-walled curved

members has gained much recent attention. T imoshenk038 and

41
Vlasov derived closed form solutions for curved beams

subjected to pure bending or uniformly distributed radial

loads. T he out of plane' buckling of curved members has also

been studied by 0 jalvo et. a1. 29. Recently C hai Hong Yoo8

carried out the study of lateral buckling of curved

beams using finite element method and observed that the

results of his analysis deviate significantly from those

38
obtained by T imoshenko and V lasov41• Later, R ajasekaran
31
and R amm coritinued with the work of C hai Hong Yoo and

concluded that V lasov's investigation of the buckling of

thin-walled curved beams is correct. T hey used the ,degene-

rated shell elements to idealize the top and bottom flanges

as well as the web of I-beam and showed that coupled local

and member buckling of the straight and curved beams could

be investigated together. However, they indicated that the

elements they used in their analysis are quite expensive

from the computational point of view and proper attention

should be given in this regard.

 18

The restraint influence on the free vibration frequency

1
of curved beams have been studied by Anwar • The solutions

obtained by him using analytical procedures can also be used

to investigate the lateral buckling of restFained.thin-walled

curved beams.

2.3 DIFF ER ENT SOLUT ION T EC HNIqUES

In the preceeding article, an attempt has been made

to present the chronological development in the field of

stability of braced structures that led to the present day

of specialization. This article reviews the existing solu-

tion techniques usually employed to treat the stability

problems of thin-walled members and helps the formulation

of the present problem and its solution procedure.

2.3.1 Formulation of Differential Equations

Perhaps, accurate determination of theoretical crtical

loads for different cases were possible due to the formulation

of differential equations by V lasov41, SleichS, T imoshenk038

and others. Torsional-flexural buckling of thin-walled members

is characterized by bending in both principal planes and

twisting about the shear centre axis. When an axially loaded

column buckles in this manner, its cross-sections undergo

translations v and w in the y and z directions respectively

 19

and rotate by an angle $ about the shear centre axis as

shown in Fig. 2.1. In this figure, C is the centroid and 0

is the shear centre of the cross-section.y and z axes are

the principal centroidal axes of the cross-section and

x-axis coincides with the axis'of the member. Equilibrium

consideration of a differential element of such columns,

deformed in this manner leads to 38

iv
EI v + p(v" + zo $") = 0 2. 1
z

EI w iv + p (w" + Yo $") = 0 2.2

y

10
iv
C 1 <P - (C
A
p) $" - p y w" + Pz
0 0
v" = 0 2.3

Here all the derivatives are with respect to x. I and I

y z
are the moments of inertia about y and z-axis respectively,

yo and zo are the distances between the shear centre and

the centroid in the two principal directions y and z respec-

tively,C 1 is the warping rigidity, C is the torsional rigidity,

10 is the polar moment of inertia of the cross-section about

the shear centre 0, A is the area of cross-section and P is

the applied load. A similar set of equations were presented

41
by V lasov for a more general case of loading having end

moments Iq z and M y about the principal axes in combination

with eccentrically applied load.

C hajes and Winter9 presented some interesting trans-

I,
formations of the above equations, which for a mono symmetric
 20

section, (y-axis is the axis of symmetry) takes the following

form,

p p
+ p - 2.4
P<jl y

where K = 1 -
1

and P is the Euler critical load for buckling about the

y
y-axis and P<jl is the critical load for purely torsional

buckl ing.

Eq. (2.4) represents a fami! y of hyperbolas and these

were plotted by C hajes and Winter. Since the critical load

p c;:-is the lower of the two roots of Eq. (2.4) and it is

smaller than both Py and P<jl' concern need only be given

to that part of the curve which lies between the origin and

the lines P/Py = 1.0 and P/P<jl = 1.0. This is an interaction

curve that provides a simple method for checking the safety

of a column against failure by torsional-flexural buckling.

The authors gave the method for evaluatiillg K and P<jl for
1
different sections and also the proper expression for the

critical load which is

1
P = 2K 2.S
cr
1

As already mentioned in the previous chapter, suitably

located elastic restraints can dramatically increase the

 21

critical load. This was also studied by T imoshenk038 and

41
Vlasov for the case considered above and a set of differen-

tial equations of the following form was suggested.

E1 viv+p(v"+z <l>")+K {v+(zo-h ) <l>} = 0 2.6

z 0 y z

E1 wiv+P(w"_y<l>"J+K {w-(y -h) <l>}= 0 2.7

y 0 z 0 y

(z -h ) -K { w - (y h )q, ) (y -h )+ k",<l>= 0 2.8

o z z oy 0 y '"

He=e the bar is centrally compressed and is supported

elastically thoughout its length in such a way that reac-

tions proportional to deflection and rotation develop during

buckling. Ky and Kz are constants defining the rigidity of

the elastic support in the y and z directions and Kq,,, is the

torsional modulus of the elastic support. hand h define

y z
the location of the restraints (F ig. 2.2). F or simply supported

end conditions with free Warping, the displacements and

rotations in E qs. (2.6) - (2.3) were taken as

nrrx nrrx nrrx

v = A
1 sin -1- w = A
2
sin -1- 4l = A
3 sin -1-

where A 1 ' A2 and A

3
are constants, 1 is the length of the
member and'n is the number of half sine waves.
 Z,W

Y yo

w c'

0'
Zo
Y,Y

FIG. 2.1
Z,W
Yo

Y,Y

FIG. 2.2
 23

Different lateral buckling problems were studied by

T imoshenko, V lasov end Bleich and different equations of

equilibrium for these cases wer~ proposed. Solutions of

these equations ultimately led to a number of rational

formulae suitable for design. F or example, when a I-beam

is acted upon by equal end moments, the value of the critical

moment M is given by
cr

r'l cr = T j EIrj: (.1

e
+r
1
2 )
IT

1
2
2.9

Here ~ is a local co-ordinate axis after deflection. Lateral

buckling load of a cantilever I-beam supporting a concentrated

load at the end and that of a simply supported I-beam suppor-

ting a midspan concentrated load ppplied at different height

Of the section is given by

p 2. 1D
cr = Y2

where Y2 is a dimensionless factor depending on the ratio

1 i: Ie l' Several values of Y2 for different cases were

tabulated by T imoshenko38

The effects of restraints against lateral buckling

were studied by SChmidt35 and Roeder "and Assadi33• The

subject element, used by Schmidt is potrayed in Fig. 2.3.

 k16

x,u

FIG. 2.:5

SCHMIDT'S MODEL
 25

. 38
F allowing the. method of T imoshenko , he developed the

differential equations of equilibrium for buckling by

combined flexure and torsion ana for a slightly deflected

axis of the member the equatio~s are given as

EI
z
v" = P/2(l/2-x) iii -f /2( 1/2-x) 2. 11

Fh
c <p I z
2. 1 2
-2-

Here F is the total lateral force exerted by the lateral

restraint and ~1 is the end torsional rotation. Schmidt

used the following non-dimensional parameters

h
= 2
1
r:;
c- '
r
z .

K l3
=~
BEl
z

and ultimately showed that the critical load for this case

can be expressed as

p = 2. 1 3
cr

A number of curves showing the variation of the critical

load parameter K2 with varying stiffness and position of

restraints were also proposed by Schmidt35•

 26

33
Roeder and Assadi treated the buckling behaviour

of I-beams having tension flange restrained. They showed

that the depth dtof a floor with a stiff floor slab is related

to the lateral deflection v and beam rotation <1>, by

v ::::: - 2'd sin 4> _

2. 1 4

Using this expression and the general assumptions of the

T imoshenko solution, they formed three differential equations

of equilibrium. Two of them are again combined into a single

equation through additional differentiation and the ppplica-

tion of Leibnitz's rule. This equation is given below:

G J + dl"VJ
<p i v o
( 2 )<1>"=0 2. 1 S
Ec
,,/
E4 EI
z

where r~o is the bending moment. Eq. (2.1S) can be solved for

critical bending moment and Roeder and Assadi used finite

difference approximation for this puvpose. T he critical

moment determined by them for a simply supported beam has

the following expression:

1'1 EI
cr z 2. 16

2.3.2 Series Expansion as a Numerical Solution Method

Most of the stability problems in practical

engineering are very difficult to solve analytically, and

 27

consequently numerical methods must be applied. The difference

between the terms analytical and numerical lies in the fact

that analytical methods refer to the methods by which an

exact closed form solution of the governing differential

equations is obtained. While in numerical methods, the

continuum is approximated by a system with finite number

of degrees of freedom instead of an infinitely large number

of actual degrees of freedom.

In the series expansion systems of numerical methods

the generalized displacement 0 of the structure_is generally

assumed as a series of terms in the following manner

2. 1 7

where A1, A2,A3 etc. ere constants. Brush & Almroth 7 used

the lateral displacement function for a simply supported

strut as

2. 18

and it has been shown that for the fundamental caSe of

bUCking, use of Eq. (2.18) in the proper differential

equations lead to the following critical load

12EI
p = z
cr 2. 1 9
2
1
 28

T his approximate method was first applied by R ayleigh32 and

he showed that more accurate results could be obtained by

use of additional terms in the displacement functions.

W. R itzc:showed in his method, commonly known as

Rayleigh-R itz method that a better approximation of the

critical load can be obtained if the displacement function

given in equation (2.18) is replaced by

I~
nTlx
V = 1: An sin -1- 2.20
n=1

However, he also showed that a better result may as well

be obtained if Eq. 2.18 is replaced by the following equa-

tion,

2.21

It is obvious that if such a series is complete, the computed

critical load converges to its exact value with an increasing

number of terms.

T he application of R ayleigh-R itz method to the stabi-

lity problems of thin-walled brBced structures lies in the

fact that an expression for total potential energy of "the

system should be obtained first. fhen using the proper

displacement functions in the experession of total potential

energy of the system and equating its first variation to

zero, the critical load may be evaluated. A systematic routine

I,
 29

work of the R ayleigh-R itz method for a simple buckling

problem is given by Brush

?
and Almroth •

10 may
The G alerkin method of series expansion also

be used for the buckling analysis of thin-walled braced

structures. In this method, the displacement functions are

approximated as

,\I
0= 1: AS 2.22
n n
n=1

where J3n represent a sequence of kinematically admis~ible

functions. In this method,use of the appropriate differen-

tial equations is important and for cases of the author's

interest, the proper differential equations are already

reviewed in the preceeding articles. All these equations

can be generalized as

L (0 ) = 0 2.23

where L is a differential operator. With this, the algorithm

of"; alerkin's method may be formulated

N
= f L( 1: AI3)S
n n m dV=O
. 2.24
v
n=1

I t has been shown by many authors that G alerkin' s

method and R ayleigh-R itz method are equivalent. In fact, it

can be concluded? that if a set of functions satisfying

\
 30

natural as well as forced boundary condition cannot be

readily chosen, it is preferable to use the R.ayleigh-R itz

method. 0 n the other hand,. the G alerkin. approach can be

applied to a more general clas~ of problems, since it is

not necessary that the differential

,
equations be derivable

by use of a variational approach.

2.3.3 Finite Difference Analysis

The finite difference method for the solution of

differential equations constitute another method for the

reduction of a continuum to a system with finite number of

degrees of freedom. This approximate numerical method for

the evaluation of buckling loads is based upon the use of

approximate expressions for the derivatives appearing in

the differential equations and also in the boundary conditions

of the problem. These expressions contain function values

at discrete points, called the "grid points and the values

of the unknown functions at the discrete points are the

degrees of freedom of the system.

The finite difference method was extensively studied

10
by COllatz and treated as a method of successive approxi-
34
mations by Salvadori • However, though these treatments

were mainly concerned with rather simple buckling problems,

the same procedure can be followed for the case of buckling

 31

of thin-walled braced structures. In the following few lines,

the author wishes to review some of the aspects of the

method and also to outline in brief the finite difference

solution technique for the stability analysis of thin-walled

braced structures.

The governing differential equations for thin-walled

braced structures has already been reviewed in article 2.3.1.

If a thin-walled bar with a monosymmetric cross-section

(y is the axis of symmetry) is centrally compressed and is

restrained elastically throughout its length, the differen-

tial equations (2.7) and (2.8) become

EI iv
w + p(w"-y <p") + K w = 0 2.7a
y o z

iv
C <P
- (c p) .<p" + K <p - Pyo w" = 0 2.8a
1 <p

Eq. (2.6) turns out to be independent for this case. As

usual for finite difference analysis, the span J!, of the

beam is divided into n equal parts of width h = J!, In and

for the simplest case of n = 2, the Use of the finite diffe-

rence expressions for the derivatives34 Lead to

EI
--i [w(x-2h)-4W(X-h)+6w(x)-4w(X+h)+W(X+2h)]
h,

+ ; [w(x-h) -2w(x)+w(x+h)]
'h
Py
- Kzw(x) - ~ [<P(x-h)-2<P(x) +<l>(x-h)]= 0 2.7b
h
 32

where w(x) and <I>(x)represent values of wand <i> respectively

at the particular grid point. Using proper boundary condi-

tions for simply supported ends'and the subscript 1 for the

displacement and rotation at the middle of the beam. Eq.(2.7b)

can be written as

EI 2Py
--..:t.. ( - w + 6w 1 - w ) 2P 0
4 1 1 - ~ wI - K zw1 + <1>1= 0
h h 7
2Ph2 4
or (4EI - - K z h ) w1 + 2P Yo h2 <1>1= 0 2.7c
Y

In a similar manner, eq. (2. 8a) becomes

210 2
- -A- h + K <1» <P1 = 0 2.8b

IVOW, for the non-trivial solution of the problem the

determinant of the system of equations (2.7c) and (2.8b)

must be equated to zero. This leads to,

= 0

2.25

Solution of equation (2.25) for the lowest value of P gives

the critical load for this case. However, for this simplest

case of n = 2 the deviation of P

cr
obtained from equation

(2.25) from its exact value may be considerable. But, as

shown by Salvadori, increase in number of elements n willi

 33

decrease the percentage of error and quite acceptable results

may be obtained for n = 10 or more. However, this will

increase the degrees of freedom'of the system and the size

of the determinant in equation .2.25 will be large. General

computer programs may be developed for these cases and the

val ue 0 f P cr may then be obtained for increasing n with an
acceptable accuracy.

In a similar manner, other complicated problems of

the stability of thin-walled braced structures may be handled

by finite difference method. However, compared to the finite

element method, to be described below, the convergence of

the critical loads are slower by this method.

2.3.4 Finite Element Analysis

The development of the finite element method as an

analysis tool was essentially initiated with the advent of

electronic digital computer. In this method, the body is

imagined to be actually broken up into a number of elements
of finite dimensions. The basic unknowns are the nodal

displacements. The displacements in the interior of each of

the elements are expressed as functions of the nodal dis-

placements. A thorough treatment of the subject is given

ln f Z.
. th e wor k SOlen k. . 43 ,", a11 ag h er 15 , I rons an d
lewlcZ
19
Ahmad , and others. Here a biref review of works related to
 34

finite element analysis of torsional and torsional-flexural

stability problems follows.

The finite element analysis of stability of space

structures composed of thin-walled members was originally

23
presented by Krajcinovic • Barsoum and G aiiagher2,Poweil
30
and Klinger • Krajcinovic based his stiffness and stability

matrices upon the solutions of the governing differential

equations describing the flexural and torsional behaviour

of the linear problem. In the other two papers, a cubic

polynomial was used to describe the lateral displacement

and longitudinal axis rotation of the beam column.

The irregularities in loading and geometry in stability

problems that defy adequate treatment by classical methods

can be easily dealt with by the finite element method. The

basic requirement lies in the determination of element

stiffness matrix and the geometric stiffness matrix. The

latter introduces the considerations related to elastic

instability effects and accounts for the influence of loads

on flexural stiffness. These matrices were developed by

15
G allagher from the principle of minimum potential energy.

The total potential energy IT comprises of the strain energy

p

U and the potential of the applied load V. When the first

variation of the potential energy expression is equated to

 35

zero, the element stiffness equations result and when the

second variation is equated to zero, elastic instability

criteria is obtained.

The general theory of finite element linear elastic

stabil i ty anal y sis was establ ish ed by G all agher 15. T hi s

theory was further extended by him to deal with the flexural

and torsional-flexural buckling of prismatic members. For

the torsional-flexural buckling case, he showed that the

expression for total potential energy can be written as

TIp = ~fl'-[EI (v")2 + GJ(q,,)2 + EC (q,")2 _

z w

- F x (v,)2+(0
,z
1x +0 z 2' (l-x)+f'iy 1-M y 2)8 x v"] dx

2
J: (1'1 q,+0 ' v, + M ,8,)
i= 1 X y1 1 Zl 1 2.26

The above equation and the theoretical derivations

performed by Gallagher forms the basis Of the present analysis

described in Chapter 3. In the above equation, however, only

four degrees Of freedom at each joint is considered and it

was also assumed that the forces at each joint were known.

This may not be the general case and for most of the cases

an elastic analysis must be performed to obtain the element

end forces. Again for the more general case where the flexural
 36

rigidity of the member about both the principal axes are

comparable the four degrees of freedom will not suffice.

Proper consideration has been given to these facts in the

present work and a more general, formulation has been

presented. Moreover, the effects of elastic restraints and

those of load heights have been incorporated. A modified

transformation matrix is also employed to generalize the

method for the stability analysis of restrained curved

thin-walled beams or arches.

2.3.5 0 ther Available Solutions

The stability of a beam with equal and opposite end

moments and having a central translational restraint of

stiffness K y and a central rotational restraint of stiffness

K<p was analysed by I'luttonand T rahair24. T hey showed that

the elastic critical moment M can be expressed in the

cr
standard form

I~ kl 2
cr TT EC 1
W
k2 2.28
VElG]
z G 11 2

where k is the effective length factor and is related to

the restraint stiffness K and K<p by,

y
 37

K 13 (JL ) 3 cot 1T
2h /0 2k 2k
...L- ( 1 + z
16EI )= 2.29
2K6/0
z 1T
2k cot
1T
2k - 1

(...l!.)
3 cot 1L
4h K 6 2k 2k
&.l3 _z ) =
1 6Ee / ( 1 - 2 2.30
w 0 1L cot
2k tJ<- 1

in which 0 is the distance between flange centroids and

1T
2
I~
cr
EI /( kl) 2
= 0/2 j 1 + .~1
k
2. 31

These relationships are plotted graphically by T rahair40

who also showed that for compression members with intermediate

restraints, the behaviour is the same. r rahair also showed

that a top flange translational restraint of stiffness

16 1T2EI Z
/1 3
K = 2.32
Y

is always sufficient to brace the beam into the second mode.

I~utton and T rahair also studied the influence of intermediate

restraints on the stability of beams with central conc~ntrated

and uniformly distributed loads and determined values of

minimum restraint stiffnesses required to cause the beam

to buckle as a rigidly braced beam.

 38

In conclusion, it may be mentioned that 8rush and

7
Almroth have indicated the possibility of the application

of numerical integration techniques to the stability problems.

However, they concluded that the convergence in this method

is rather slow. Another powerful technique for the evaluation

of buckling loads is the finite integral method proposed

6
by Brown and Trahair • Using this method Kitipornchai and
22
Richter obtained the critical loads for lateral buckling

of I-beams with discrete intermediate restraints.

 CHAP. TieR 3

THEO RETICAl INV ESTIGATION

3.1 INTRODUCTION

From the review of the available works it is evident

that elastic instability problems are geometrically nOn-

linear ones and the deformed geometry of the body differs

significantly from the undeformed geometry. This results in

a non-linear strain displacement relationship and the total

strain within the body can be expressed as the sum

3.1

wh2re {E} denotes the total strain matrix, {EE} is the

geometrically linear strain matrix and {E_ } is a non-linear

u
function of displacements and denotes the non-linear part

of the total strain. As the total strain is composed of two

component parts the total strain energy is also composed of

two parts: one part UE due to the strain matrix {EE} and the

other part Ue due to the strain matrix {E

e } . Thus

This strain energy together with the potential of the applied

loads forms the total potential energy which in turn gives

rise to the element stiffness matrix and the element geometric

matrix. The element stiffness matrix contains contributions

 40

from flexural rigidities of the beam and also from torsional

stiffness which in turn depends on 'its Saint Venant torsional

sti ffness and on the flexural resistance of its flanges. The

element geometric matrix, on the other hand, contains contri-

butions from the longitudinal normal stresses due to bending

and axial load which together cause the tendency of a beam

to buckle.

3. 2 AI~AL VT Ie AL MODEL

In the conventional theory of bending of bars, longi-

tuoinal deformations are obtained from Navier's hypotehsis which

states that, during bending, plane cross-sections will remain

plane. T his hypothesis is,however, abandoned in this analysis

as the cross-section will warp if a bar of thin-walled open

section is twisted. But it is assumed that Navier's hypothesis

remains valid for each of the flat plates of which the bar

is composed. This appears to be justified as the thickness

of the plates is very small and the centre line of the cross-

section of a thin plate remains in a plane during torsion.

The other assumptions adopted for this analysis are: during

buckling applied loads remain constant in magnitude and

direction but move perpendicular to the original plane of

the structure; each member retains its cross-sectional shape

during buckling but may warp perpendicular to the plane of

the cross-section; the shear deformations of the middle surface

 41

vanish and shear strains due to shear stresses in equilibrium

with the change of normal stresses are small and can be

neglected.

An element between the nodes 1 and 2 of the body is

shown in Fit). 3.1. T he rectangular coordinate system x, y, z

is so chosen that y and z coincide with the principal axes

of the cross-section of the element and x coincides with the

centroidal axis C 1.{;2 before buckling. T he shear centres of

the cross-sections at nodes 1 and 2 are indicated by 01 and

U2 and dotted line through these points indicates the shear

centre axis. fhe element is acted upon by an axial force

F x with eccentricities ey and e z with respect to the centroid.

End forces and End moments corresponding to y and z axes are

Uy1' °y2' °z1' °z2' l~y1' l~y2' r~z1 and l~z2 respectively. Here

the numerals 1 and 2 refer to the node where the force or

moment is acting. fhere is also a torque I~ which acts

x
about the shear centre axis. All these forces together form

the load vector. The displacement vector is composed of the

axial displacement u, displacement v and w of the shear

center axes in the y and z directions respectively, the angle

of twist ~ , about the shear center axis and also of 8 ; ¥

and X which are defined as

8 ~ dv. ~ dw ~ d<1>
(iX' dx ' x dx 3.3

1\1 a w, in order to apply the principle of minimum potential

I

energy, the strain energy and the potential of the applied

 • Fx

YO
e ..
y

FIG. 3 -I

TYPICAL THIN- WALLED ELEMENT

 43

loads are to be found out first. T he procedure of obtaining

the strain energy U for a prismatic member from the non-

linear strain displacement relationship is shown by Gallagher 15

The general expression of the strain energy for this particular

case is obtained by Sleich5, which
, is

3.4

T he potential of the applied loads V consists of two

parts. r he first part V1 is formed by the product of the

applied loads and their displacements, and gives the potential

of the applied loads in the prebuckling deformations. Thus:

3.5

T he second part V2 takes into account the instability

criteria and is formed from the potential of the applied

load in the adjacent equilibrium position.

F ormation of V2 is, however, quite extensive and it is .

due to the studies of Sarsoum and G allegher 2 that the formation

of V2 was possible. T hey first recognized this part of the

potential of applied loads and showed that V2 is given as a

summation of the separate contribution of different forces.

 fh u :;,

Ii 2 ~ L 11
j j 3.6

. 2'
Ii .
~
~ 1 I 2f!l- F [( v 12 + w',J+5 <p
12]dx
3.7
x 0

where 50 ~ Io/A + e k
y 7 + ezk
S

K
7
~ 1 II y [fA Z 3 dA+ fAY 2 zdA J- 2zo

K
S
~ 1 II
z
[f Ay3dA + fA z 2 ydA] - 2yo

3.S

3. 9

Ii i v ~ - 1 12M Y 1 f tv'l\I dx + 1 I 2 r~y 2 f t v II <p dx 3. 1 0

11
v 3.11

Ii • ~ - 1 I 2 I~ f Nn ( V I W II _ W I V ") dx
v~ X 3.12

Equation (3.12), was, however, derived by H. Ziegler and

was shown that this equation and the corresponding strain

energy is valid only for the buckling analysis of circular

shafts.
 45

3.3 F UR i~ULAr ION OF S,TIFF NESS ~lATR Ie ES

LInce the energy expressions are obtained the rest of

the work is quite systematic and is similar to those

employed in other problems of finite element method. As in

other cases, here also the expression for total potential

energy is given by

11
p =U -v 3.13

where 11 = 11 1 + V2
Now substitution of equations (3.4) to (3.12) into the

equation (3.13) leads to the expression for total potential

energy of the system considered above. However, transformation

of the above equation into the desired stiffness expressions

requires the selection of displacement functions in descriptio~

of the behaviour of the element.

rhe displacement functions are so chosen that the

appropriate nodal displacements are obtained when the co-

ordinates of the appropriate nodes are inserted. In general,

the displacements are assumed as

a = I~. a ..
~ ~ 3. 1 4

where N.~ are the prescribed functions, called the shape

functions and a.
~ represent a listing of nodal displacements

for a particular element. As a matter of fact, the N.' s

~
 46

describe the displacement field for a unit value of the

joint displacement a.
J.
when all other joint displacements

are suppressed. These parameters are functions of co-ordinate

x. For a beam element, the shppe functions are derived

43
by Zeinkiewicz for flexural analysis and he assumed a cubic
, I
expression for the deflected shape of the element. Accordingly,

the independent displacements u,v,w, and ~ for the present

analysis can be assumed as

u = [ 1 -xl'J.. 3. 1 5

V =[1+2(xl'J..)3_3(xl'J..)2 3( xl'J..) 2_2( xl'J..) 3

2
-x(xl'J.. -1) -x i(xlv 2-xI'J..JJ vI
v
2
81
82

T
V 2 81 3. 1 6

W = [1+2(xl'J..) 3_3(xl'J..) 2 2 3
3( xl'J..) -2( xl'J..)

2
-x(xl'J.. -1) -x f (xl'J..) 2-xl'J..U WI
w2

f 1

'!' 2

T
= [l'Jw ] [WI W
2 '!' 1 '!' 2J 3. 1 7
 47

= [1 + 2(x /R.) 3_ 3(x /R.) 2

<I> 3(x /R.) 2_ 2(x /R.) 3

_x(x/Ll)2 -x{(x/R.)2-x/R.il<1>1

<1>2

Xl
X2
T
Xl 3.18

In the above expressions it was assumed that

6 = _ (2.l!.)
1 dx 1

j! 1 = - (~~) 1

X =_(d<l» X 2 = _ (d<l»
1 dx 1 dx 2

Now, substitution of the displacement functions given

by equa.tions (3.15) to (3.18) into equation (3.4) gives the

following transformed expression for strain energy U. Thus:

+ _[v_1_V_2_61_.
2
_6~J, [ilJ"J [N"]
~ v
T
v
EI
Z
dx} [
v1 v 261 62
J T
 48

[ W1 W
z '!'
1 '!' J T
+
z z U.lN~J '[N~J EIydX} [W1 W
z <j! 1 <j! J T

+ [<1>1 <l>Z X1 X~
{[~ .~N: iJ T • [Nil]!l>
EC dx
z w

T T
+fJl. [N'] [N~J GJ dX}[ <1>1 <l>Z X1 X~

T
= 1/Z[aJ K 0 0 0 3.19
E1 [ aJ

0 K 0 0
EZ

0 0 K 0
E3

0 0 0 K
E4

where raJ represents the displacement matEix and is given

by

I1z 81
z]
[aJ =[u1 U
z v1 8 W1 Wz <j! 1 <j! Z <1>1<l>Z X1 X
Z

r
and K
E1 =fJl.[I~~] [N ~JEAdx
T
K
EZ =f JI. [N ~J [N ~J EI z dx
K EI dx
U =fJl.[NllwJT[N~J y

T T
K
E4 =f Jl.l[N~'J [N; ] EC. + [N~ ]
w [N~J GJ 1 dx
 49

T he second matrix of equation (3.19) consisting of K ,

E1
KE2, KE3 and KE4 is the element stiffness matrix and is

represented by [KEJ • Thus equation (3.19) takes the following

general form:

3.20

Substituting equations (3.15) to (3.18) into equation

(3.6), the transformed expression for the potential of the

applied forces in the adjacent equilibrium position il 2 is

obtained. Thus

il 2 8 1 T
- ~1 8 2J F U T
il
2
2 x JI. ~~~J
[N~J dX)[il1il
2 8
1 B~

+
[ W1 W2 r 1 r2J T T
F xU JI. [N~ ['~~JdX{Wl Wz j! 1 j! 2]
2

[<1>1 <1>2 X1 X2J T

+ .
2
F xU JI. So ['~;] [N;]dX}[ <1>1 <P2
X1 x2T
[il1 il 2 81 8 ] T
2
2 [Q z 1Ie. [N ~J [N <p] x dx

T T
+ llz2 f JI.[ i~~J [N<p](JI.-X)dX J[ <P1 <P2 X1 X2 J
[W1 W 'f'1 l' 2J T
2
2
{Qy1f JI. [N~J [N<1>J xdx

T T
+ LJy2
f:L ['Y ~] [,~ <pJ (JI.-x) dx} [ <1>1<1>2 X
1 X2 J
 50

'1'2] T
X1 XJ

V 2
dx}
2

or,
T
[a] [a]
V2 = 0 0 0
"2 0 3. 21

0
't1 KG 8 KG 4 +KG 6-:

0
KG 8 't2 KG 5+KG 7

0
't4+'t6 't 5+'t 7 KG 3

Where,

T
KG 1 = -F/R. [N~ ] [N~J dx

T .
K
G 2 = - F x f R. [N ~ ] [ N~ ] dx

T
KG 3 = - F x fR. So [N ~J [ N;P] dx
 51

T T
KG 4
~
q z1 J JI. [N~J [Nep] xdx + Qz/JI, [I~~J[Nep] (.Q,-x) dx

T T
KG 5
~
Qy1J.Q, [N~J [N cp] xdl( + Qy/.Q, [N ~J [NcpJ (.Q,-x) dx

~ (IYJ My2)J.Q, [N~] T [Ncp] dx

KG 6 y1

~
K,:;7 ( Mz 1-Mz 2) J .Q,[N~J T [NcpJ dx

T T
KG 8 - - IYJ
x JJI,{[N~J IN~J - [N~J [N~J} dx

Here the second matrix of equation (3.21) consisting of

KG l' KG 2' KG 3' K,:; 4' KG 5' 't 6' KG 7 and KG 8 is the element
. geometric matrix and is denoted by [KG] . Thus, equation

(3.21) takes the following form

3.22

It is thus evident from the above that the element geometric

matrix [KG] is.a function of the element forces and its

gometry.

T he potential V 1 of the applied loads in the prebuckling

displacements also need to be transformed into desirable

expressions. However, it is seen from equ,;,tion (3.5) that V1

is a function of the nodal displacements and hence the

 52

displacement functions_are not needed to be used for this

case. Thus in matrix notations equation (3.5) can be written

as

V1 : [ u1 u v v2 8 82 W W
2 1 1 1 2 '¥ 1 '¥
2

-<I> 1 4>2J

[F x - Fx °y1 °y2 M
z1 M z2 ° z1 °z2
M
y1
M
y2

T
M
x - MXJ

where [p] denote the load vector and [bJcontains the

corresponding nodal displacements shown above.

Now from equations (3.13), (3.20). (3.22) and (3.23),

the final expression for the total potential energy of the

system discussed above is obtained. Thus

3.24

The elastic instability criteria is now obtained by taking

second variation Of total potential energy given by Eq. 3.24

and equating it to zero.
 53

3.4 IIIJF
LUENC E OF INT ER MEDlAr E EL AST IC R ESTR AINT 5

As already mentioned, the load carrying capacity of a

beam may be considerably increased by providing intermediate

restraints. In fact, the restraints resist the beam to

deflect and exerts a force proportional to its deflection.

rhus, it is evident that for thin-walled sections, the

restraints will increase both the flexural and torsional

rigidities of the beam and influence the elastic stiffness

ma t rix. Powe 11 an d K1 lnger

. 30 and a 1 so N etherco t an d R oc k ey 27

suggested that the presence of elastic restraints may be

introduced in a finite element analysis by adding the

stiffness of the restraints to the corresponding diagonal

terms of the elastic stiffness matrix [KEJ. Nethercot and

Rockey illustrated this approach for restraints attached at

the level of the shear centre only. But for lateral restraints

attached at a level other than the shear centre, the stiffness

contribution of the restraints are not so straight forward

.and the resistance to twist must also be accounted for.

[he section of beam supported by both linear and

rotational elastic restraints is shown in Fig. 3.2. [he

restraints are attached to the section at the point N with

1
y and z coordinates equal to hand h respectively. Let the
y z
stiffness of the linear restraints along the y and z-axis

be K y and K z respectively and the torsional modulus of the

 54

rotational restraint that resist the twisting of the section

be K • It may be mentioned here that the restraints are

<I>

shown at a single node of an element. For uniformly distri-

buted restraints along the length of the member the respec-

tive effect of the nodes should be considered.

To visualize the effects of the restraints, the

element stiffness matrix [KE] given in equation (3.20) is

to be considered. T his is a 14x14 matrix and is formed by

the submatrices KE1, KE2, K and K as shown in equation

E3 E4
(3.19). As the submatrix K is related to the axial dis-
E1
placement u and there is no restraint to restrict this

displacement, KE1 is not affected by the restraints. The

other submatrices,however,will be influenced.

For unit displacement of the section along the y-axis,

the force exerted by the restraint with stiffness K is

y

F =K.1=K 3.25
Y Y Y

and the corresponding moment about the shear centre axis

is

I~
Y 3.26

Thus these two terms are the additional terms to be added

to the element stiffness matrix[KE]corresponding to the

degrees of freedom v1 and <1>1in the third row of[KJ.Similarly,

I
 55

for a unit displacement of the section along the z-axis the

force exerted by the restraint K is

z

F =K.1=K 3.27
z z z

and the corresponding moment about the shear centre axis

is

M
z = K
z (h y - Y )
0 3.28

once again, these two additional terms are to be added to

the element stiffness matrix[K~ corresponding to the degrees

of freedom w1 and <1>1in the seventh row of [Ka. Lastly when

the angle of twist of the section about the shear centre

axis becomes unity, the displacements of the section along

the y and. z axes can be visualized from Fig. 3.3 and the

corresponding forces and moment become

3.29.

F", =
",z + K Z (h Y - Y )
0 3.30

3. 31 .

I~OW, the exact location of the matrix[KEJ to which the addi-

tional terms are to be added will be identified. F or this

the subscript 'previous' is used to indicate the terms of

matrix [K~ in equation (3.19) and the subscript I new I is used

to indicate the term after introducing the additional on~s.

,
 z

ky

Pig. 3.2
BEA.M CROSS-SECTION WITH TP.E RESTRAINTS

hZ-Z

j t ---- --"::1
/",
'IJ:I ,"'"
o I, hy-Vo
/1

y
c

pig. 3.:3 LINE.lR DISPLA.CEIlENTS DUE TO UNH .

ROTATION
 57

Thus, in the 14x14 element stiffness matrix[Ka,

K (7, 7) = K (7 7) . t K
E' new E ' preVlOUS Z

K (11,3) = K (1 1 , 3) K (h
E new E previous Y Z

K (11,7)
E new
= K (11 7)
E 'prevlous
. t K (h
Z y
- y )
o

2 2
K (11,11) = KE(11,11) . t K (h -z) tK (h -y ) tK,.
E new prevlous Y z 0 z y 0 'I'

Thus, it is clear from the above that the element stiffness

matrix remains symmetric even after the introduction of the

influence of intermediate restraints.

It may be mentioned at this point that the above

equations are derived when the restraint act at a single

nOde of the element. But in general, the restraints may be

located anywhere along the member. F or this reason similar

additional terms contributed by the other node should also

be added to the element stiffness matrix [Ka. To facilitate

this process the additional terms due to the elastic restra-

ints will be introduced in proper locations. of the overall

stiffness matrix obtained by assembling the individual

 58

stiffness matrices for each element. T his, however, requires

the separation of the degrees of freedom of two nodes in

one element and both the element stiffness matrix ~a and

the geometric stiffness matrix[K~ should be rearranged

accordingly. T his arrangement of the stiffness matrices

are described in a separate article.

3.5 EFFlIT OF LOA 0 HElL HT

In the previous articles, the stiffness matrices were

derived with the consideration that when a concentrated load

acts on the beam, it acts at the level of the shear centre.

However, if the load is applied above or below the shear

centre axis, this will affect the potential of the applied

loads in the adjacent equilibrium position V 2' Thus the effect

of load height is to add an extra term in the element geometric

matrix[KeJ given in equation (3.22).

When the beam buckles by deflecting laterally and

twisting,the line of action of load moves parallel to it

as shown in Fig. 3.4. At this stage, the load P acting at a

height a z from the centroidal axis can be replaced by a

vertical load P and a twisting moment P (a _ z ) ep , Thus for

z 0

a unit angle of twist, the additional term that should be

added to the element geometric matrix[~J corresponding to

 z

r p

Q.

o
'0
I
Y. c
Y

(a)

(b)
Y

( c)

Pig. 3.4 EFPECTS OP LOAD HEIGHT

 60

the degree of freedom <P, when load P is at node 1 is

I~ ~ P ( a -- z )
z 0 3.32-

Thus the new term of the element geometric matrix becomes

K,:; (11 11 ) ~ K. (11, 11) . + P (a _ z ).

, new G prev~ous z 0

Here also the load may act at any node of the member

and, therefore, the additional term due to the effect of

load height should preferably be added to the overall geometric

matrix after assembling the individual element matrices.

Equation (3.32) can also be obtained from the consi-

deration of potential energy of the applied loads in the

adjacent equilibrium position. T he additional energy due to

the load height a is 1/2 P(a - z) <P~. Taking the second

z z 0 l.

variation of this with respect to <p., the additional term

l.

p (a
z - z0) is obtained.

Er~ENT CF \T HE Sf IFF NESS

3.6 fHAiR AI\l; MATR Ie ES

Derivation of the stiffness matrices has been presented

in article 3.3. It has been shown that both the element

stiffness and geometric matrices are 14x14 matrices and the

displacements are so ordered that each identical degree

of freedom. at the two nodes are placed together. T his ordering

of the displacement vectors, however, has some disadvantages

I
 61

and to facilitate the assembling process, the displacement

vectors corresponding to each node should be separated. The

procedure of placing the displacements at one node together

is quite simple and the location of the non-zero elements

of element stiffness and geometric matrices obtained from

equations (3.1 g) and (3.21) respectively are shown after

rearrangement in Fig. 3.5.

3. 7 I~LJDIF IC AT ION FLJR C URV ED BEAMS AND ARC HES

The above formulation of the stiffness matrices can

also be used for the stability analysis of thin-walled

cu=ved beams and arches. This necessitates the use of proper

transformation matrix to transform the element stiffness

matrices from local to the global axes. In fact the curved

beams are considered as assemblages of linear beam elements

and then the analysis is done as for a rigid-jointed frame.

A simplified model of a curved beam with intermediate node

points indicated by numerals is shown in Fig. 3.6. Here

xg' yg and Zg denote the axes in the global coordinate system.

To visualize the transformation matrix an element of

the curved b.eam is shown in Fig. 3.7. T he degrees of freedom

at each node are the same as considered earlier for straight

beams and ~re given with respect to the local co-ordinate

axes. T he angle of inclination of the local axes x and z with

 x x
x x x x
x x x x
x x x x
x x x x
x x x x
x x x x
x x
x x x x
x x X x
x x x x
x x x x
x x x x x
x x x x

(a) Element Stiffness Matrix

NOTE:
x x x x x x x x x x Each x
x x x x x x x x x x x "indicates
x x x x x a nonzero
x x x x X
x elemen!.
x x x x x x x x x x
x x x x x x x x x x x x
x x x x x x x x x x x x

x x x x x x x x x x
x x x
x x x x x x x x
x x x x x x x x x x
x x x x x x x x x x x
x x x x x x x x x x x x
x x x x x x x x x x x x

(b) Element Geometric Matrix

FIG. 3.5 LAYOUT OF REA.RRANGED STIFPNESS ~.uTRICES
 Yg

Xg

SIMPLIFIED MODEL OF THE CURVED BEAM

FIG. 3.6

z
zg 2

Yg
,

,. Xg
FIG. 3.7

AN ELEMENT WITH LOCAL AND GLOBAL CO-ORDINATE SYSTEM

 64

the corresponding global axes is shown to be U., where i

1.

refers to the element number. Now, it 1s obvious that the

order of the transformation matrix should also be 14. Thus,

partitioning the transformation matrix into its sub-matrices

t., it can be written as,

1.

3.33

where [OJ denotes null matrix and the order of both t.

1.

and [OJ is seven. I\JOW, it can be easily verified that the

submatrix t. for this case takes the following form:
1.

= cosc!. 0 0 -since 0 0 0 3.34

[tJ 1. 1.

0 1 0 0 0 0 0

0 U cosa. 0 0 sina. 0
1. 1.

sina.
1.
a a cosa.,
1.
a a 0

0 a a a 1 a 0

a a -sina.
1.
a a cos a.
1.
a
0 a 0 a a 0 1

When stiffness matrix for an element in local axes

and corresponding matrix for transformation to global axes

are known, stiffness matrix in global co~ordinate system

 65

can be easily obtained by conventional procedures. Thus, the

element stiffness and element geometric matrix for an element

i in the global coordinate system may be expressed as

= 3.35a

and 3.35b-

3. 8 SOL UT 10 N T EC HN I QUE

It was mentioned earlier that when second variation

of the potential energy for the system is equated to zero,

the instability criteria or the condition defining the bifurca-

tion of equilibrium is obtained. F Or this purpose Eq. (3.24)

which gives the potential energy for a single element should

be cOAsidered hEre. The potential energy for the system can

then be obtained by simply adding the potential energies of

the component elements. Thus, using the same notations used

in Eq. (3.24) to denote the matrices for the overall system

the expression for the global potential energy takes the

following form:

3. 36

Here the matxices [KE] and [KG] are the overall stiffness

and geometric matrices obtained by assembling the matrices

 66

of the individual elements. T he matrices [aJ and [PJ also

denote the displacement and load matrices respectively for

the overall system.

ow,
I~ for the conditions of stable equilibrium, 1. e.

when the loads applied are less than their critical values,

application of the principle of minimum potential energy

in the form of the first variation of TT ,,1. e. OTT = 0

P P
to Eq. (3.36) results in the following stiffness equation

3.37

Eq. (3.37) can now be solved for the displacements by the

usual means, but to deal with the elastic instability, the

second variation of Eq. (3.36) must be taken. But before

that the element geometric matrix must first be numerically

evaluated using an arbitrarily chosen load intensity so

that it can be solved as a general eigenvalue problem. Now,

introducing the scale factor A,

3.3B

where [K~1J is defined as the value of [K~J when the lo'ad

vector [PJ corresponds to unit scale factor. Thus Eq. (3.37)

becomes

3.39
 57

F or stable equilibrium 2
6 TIp > 0 and for neutral equilibrium
2
6 TIp = 0 which defines the bifurcation of equilibrium. Thus

application of the neutral equilibrium condition to Eq.(3.35)

results in the instability criteria. However, an alternative

2
approach to arrive at the instability criteria is to

consider that the buckling deformations are completely

independent of the prebuckling deformations. Thus as the

applied loads are only in the direction of the pre buckling

deformations, the load vector [PJ reduces to zero for the

buckling deformations. T his argument reduces Eq. (3. :59) to,

3.40

Here, Cal are the buckling deformations only. l~ow, for

such a solution to exist, it is evident that

3.41

However, a more efficient technique to evaluate )..

is to

transform Eq. (3.40) into the following form:

= -)..

1 T
or 3.42
)..

E q. (3. 42) can be solved for th8~lowest eigenvalGe).. and

c
 68

the corresponding eigenvectors by a standard eigenvalue

solution technique. For this ..purpose, the method presented

, 42
by Wang with the Rayleigh Quotient has been used. However,

a slight modification has been made by shifting the origin3

In this method, some load factor A is selected which is

o
less than but close to Ac and Eq. (3.42) is rewritten as

1 T
T:"X 3.43
c 0

Use of this equation gives quick and efficient convergence

of the problem.

3.9 PREI:JU::KL!I\l3 ELASTIC ,AI~ALYSIS

F or concentrated loads acting On a beam, the end forces

of an element are not known at the beginning and hence the

element geometric matrix cannot be determined directly. For

this case an elastic analysis must first be carried out to

determine the internal forces at each node of the member.

T he elastic analysis is, however, performed by finite element

methods using the element stiffness matrices. First of all,

the element stiffness matrices [KEJ 's are determined 'by

equation (3.19) and then assembled to form the overall

stiffness matrix [KE] • T hen the proper boundary conditions

 69

are introduced and the displacements are obtained from the

equation

3.44

F rom the displacement vector [aJ ' the proper nodal displacements
are
/selected and the element nodal forces are calculated from

3.45

These forces are then used to derive the element geometric

matrices [~J 's, which are assembled subsequently to form

the overall geometric matrix.

For curved beams proper transformation matrix given

by equation (3.34) should be used and the internal forces

should be determined from

3.46
 j C HAPT ER 4

THE C OMPUT ER PROGR AI~

4.1 II~TRUOUCT ION

In the previous chapter. the finite element idealiza-

tion of the problem of stability of thin-walled braced

structures has been presented. T he purpose of this chapter

is to utilise these methods and to develop a computer

program to carry out the. necessary investigation. T he nature

of the program is general and it can be. used to calculate

the critical loads for any braced thin-walled beams, beam-

columns and arches that are subjected to a general type of

loading aRd can encounter any boundary conditions. The prog-

ram described here has been written in F ORTR AN language and

run on the IBf~ 4331 computer at the BUET computer centre.

4.2 r HE SOLUT ION SC HE~lE

8efore the individual parts of the program are discusses,

the sequence of the solution procedure maintained during the

computer analysis is described. T he proposed solution schem"e

includes the following steps:

a) T he geometry of the member, 1. e, the area of cross-

section, the moments of inertia, torsional and warping

constants. and the material properties including the modulus

of elasticity, modulus of rigidity and the torsional and

I
 71

,
warping rigidities are defined first. At the same time, by

means of a series of simple commands, the support conditions

and loading on the member, corresponding to unit scale

factor are defined.

b) The next step is to divide the member into a

suitable number of finite elements, and to define the total

number of nodes and the degrees of freedom at each node.

c) The element stiffness matrices are then calculated

and assembled to form the overall stiffness matrix.

d) The boundary conditions are then imposed and

accordingly the stiffness matrix is modified.

e) An elastic analysis is carried out to find the

internal force distributions for loading corresponding to

unit scale factor.

f) With known values of nodal forces, the element

geometric matrices are calculated and assembled to form the

overall geometric matrix.

g) The effects of the elastic restrai~ts are introduced

into the overall stiffness matrix, which is then modified

according to the boundary conditions of stability analysis.

h) The assembled geometric matrix is modified to

encounter the effects of load height and then the boundary

conditions are introduced in it.

 72

i) 8y an eigenvalue solution technique, the critical

load factor and the corresponding eigenvectors describing

the buckling modes, are calculated.

4.3 C LJI~PLJI~ENT5 OF THE C OMPUT ER PR OGR AI~

The computer program consists of a number of subroutines

combined together by a main program. Each of the subroutines

carries out a definite operation and these operations are

linked together by a series of simple statements contained

in the main program. In fact the main program controls the

overall analysis and maintains the sequence of the solution

scheme described in the previous article. A flow chart is

shown in Fig. 4.1 to show how the analyses is carried out

and when the subroutines are called in the main program.

The names of the subroutines that appear in the flow chart

are actually used in the program and are described in the

next article. It may be mentioned at this point that there

are also some other subprograms and these are called only

by other subroutines.

4.4 THE SUtt1UUTINES

In this article, an attempt has been made to give

some insight into the subroutines. T he functions of the

subroutines, how they are formed and some of their other

features are described briefly and when needed a flow c~art

,,
of the program has also been presented.
Read the properties of section, length of
member, support conditions and loading corres-
ponding to unit scale factor

Divide the member into a number of elements;

assign number.to the elements and nodes and
indicate the coordinates. Also read the number
of degrees of freedom at each node

C all subroutine ELEI~ST.to calculate the element

stiffness matrices of each element

C all subroutine ASSM8L to assemble the element

stiffness matrices to form the overall stiffness
matrix

C all subroutine BLJUND to mOdify the stiffness

matrix in accordance with the boundary conditions
for elastic anal sis

C all subroutine SOLV E to find out the nodal

displacements and then find the element end forces

Call roubroutine G EOi'IU to obtain the element

geometric matrices

C all subroutine ASSM8L to. form the overall

geometric matrix and mOdify it for load height

C all subroutine ST IFF K to introduce the effects

of elastic restraints into the overall stiffness
matrix

C all subroutine BOUND to introduce the boundary

conditions of stability analysis
Assume an initial eigenvalue and form the
combined matrix by subtracting the overall
geometric matrix multiplied by the initial
eigenvalue from the overall stiffness matrix

C all subroutine GAUSS to invert the combined

matrix

C all subroutine En:; EN to find out the critical

eigenvalue and the critical eigenvectors

Write the critical load vector corresponding

to the critical eigenvalue

Fig. 4.1 Flow C hart for Main Program.

 7S

Subroutine ELEMSf
..: T he purpose of this subroutine is to

form the element stiffness matrices by the use of the equation

(3.19). T he integrations are performed by Simpson I s Method

of numerical integration and the integration constants are

contained in another subroutine named SIMP. A flow chart

for the subroutine ELEI~Sfis shown in Fig. 4.2.

T he terms POS(K) and WEE P(K) are actually the integra-

tion constants and respectively gives the locations of the

member where the functions are to be taken and the weightage

factors. T he value of K varies from 1 to N and here N is

taken equal to 3. POS(K) and WEE P(K) for the analysis are:

POS(1) = 0.0

post 2) = li/2
post 3) = 1.
1

WEEP(1) = IJ6
WEEP(2) = 41. /6
1

WEEP(3) = li/6

where 1. is
1
the length of the particular element. In the

flow chart of Fig. 4.2, the terms XK , XK , XK and XK

E1 E2 E3 E4
are used to distinguish the terms obtained in each cycle

from .the overall submatrices. In fact, the terms XK ,XK ,

E1 E2
XKE3 and XKE4 are obtained from article 3.3 and the summation

of the terms after the completion of the cycles gives the

matrices KE1, KE2, KE3 and K • T he terms of the element

E4
 Obtain length of the element, properties of
sec t ion, F ,.:; ,C ,C 1 etc.

Initialize matrices K , K , K , K
E1 E2 E3 E4

C all subroutine SHIP to obtain the coordinate

points PlJS(K) and the corresponding weightage
factors WEI.:;P (K)

Set x=PlJS(K)

Obtain each term of the matrices XK ,XK

XKE3 and XKE4 from equation (3.19), E1 E2

KE1 (I ,J) =KE1 (I ,J) +XK (I ,J) "WEI.:;P(K)

E1

KE2 ( I ,J ) =KE 2 ( I ,J ) +XKE2 ( I ,J ) "w EI.:;P (K)

KE3(I,J) = KE3(I,J)+XK (I,J)"WElliP(K)

E3

KE4(I,J) = KE4(I,J) +XK (I,J)"WElliP(K)

E4

YES

Form the element stiffness matrix in accordance

with article 3.6

Fig. 4.2 Flow C hart for Subroutine ELEI~ST•

 77

stiffness matrix are then rearranged in accordance with

article 3.6 so that the final matrix takes the look of

F ig. 3. S •

Subroutine G EtJMET :;

T he purpose of the subroutine G EtJr~ET is to form the

element geometric matrices. T he formation of the element

geometric matrices is similar in principle to those of the

element stiffness matrices with the only difference that

the, expressions for the terms of KG l' KG 2"'" tt 7' KG B

should be obtained from the respective equations given in

article 3.3. Subroutine SIMP is also used here to carry out

the numerical integration.

Subroutine ASSMBL: This subroutine assembles the individual

stiffness matrices to form the overall stiffness matrices.

The assembling procedure adopted here is simple and similar

to that presented by Nath2S• As both the element stiffness

matrix and the element geometric matrix are of the same

order, the same subroutine is used to assemble them. rhus

the subroutine is called in two different places in the

main program after all the element stiffness matrices and

the element geometric matrices are formed.

Subroutine BOUND: T he purpose of subroutine BOUND is tO

I,
introduce the boundary conditions into the assembled overall
 7B

sti ffness matrix and the overall geometric matrix. The

procedure of introducing the boundary conditions is quite

simple and the rows and columns of the matrices corresponding

to the zero displacements are suppressed. Also, those corres-

ponding to the degrees of freedom which are not needed for

the stability analysis are deleted by the same subroutine.

A flow chart of subroutine BOUND is shown in Fig. 4.3. Here

matrix A is the given assembled overall matrix and C is the

matrix obtained after the boundary conditions have been

introduced. T he overall matrix A is always a symmetric square

matrix and its order has been shown to be NCOLUM. Matrix V

is the predefined matrix that indicates the degrees of

freedom corresponding to which the rows and columns of the

matrix A should be deleted. In fact matrix V contains zero I s

at the zero displacement points and some other numbers

el sewhere.

Subroutine SOLV E: By the help of this subroutine, the elastic

prebuckling deformations of the structure could be obtained.

F or the formation of the element geometric matrices, the

internal forces at the nodes of the structure should be

determined first. F or this an initial elastic analysis has

to be performed using the known load matrix and the overall

stiffness matrix. Thus the nodal displacements are found

first with the help of subroutine SOLV E. T he principle

Llbtain matrices V (I), AU,J)
I varies from 1 to NCLlLLlI~
J varies from 1 to NCLlLUI~

YES

8 (,~ 1 ,J ) =A U ,J )

YES

IS
V (I) =u I~Li

YES
 I~Ll

YES

I~O

YES

Fig. 4.3 Flow C hart for Subroutine BOUND.

 8i

adopted here is the Gauss-Jordan method of solution of

simultaneous equations. T he program was developed based

on the mathematical logic presented by Wang
42

Subroutine ST IFF K: T his subroutine introduces the effects

of elastic restraints into the overall stiffness matrix.

The subroutine is developed based on the principles of

article 3.4. As some additional terms are added to some

particular locations of the overall stiffness matrix to

count for the restraints,the programming is quite simple and

does not need explanations. T he predefined matrix V is also

usee here to point out the locations of the restraints.

Corresponding to the degrees of freedom that are affected

by the restraints, numbers other than zero are introduced

into the matrix V.

Soubroutine_ GAUSS: T his subroutine inverts the combined

matrix obtained by
subtracting the product of overalL geometric

matrix and a predetermined eigenvalue from the overall stiff-

ness matrix. Gauss-Jordan Method of inversion of matrices has

been used here and the programme developed by Wang 42 has been

employed with a-little modification.

Subroutine EIG EI~: T he purpose of subroutine ElGEN is to find

out the critical eigenvalue and the corresponding eigenvectprs

 82

as described in article 3.8. At first, the initial eigenvalue

is taken to be unity. For subsequent analyses with increasing

stiffness of the elastic restraints, the initial eigenvalue

is taken as that obtained from the preceeding analysis.

This procedure gives a faster convergence. A flow chart of

subroutine EIGEI~ is shown in Fig. 4.4. Here the problem is

converted into a standard eigenvalue problem by multiplying

the overall geometric matrix by the inverse of the combined

matrix. The order of the matrices after introducing the

boundary conditions is N1. T he initial eigenvalue is denoted

by A1, the critical eigenvalue by A and the corresponding

eigenvectors by the column matrix X(I).

4. S CONCLUSION

The main program and the principal subroutines developed

for the computer analysis have been described. T here are,

however, some more subroutines which are not described above

because of their simple nature. Among these are the subroutines

SIi~P, rRAI~S, XI~ATPY, ASMBL 1, etc. TI1ANS, for example, evaluates

the transformation matrix, while XI~ATPY is used for the.

multiplication of two matrices.

Ob~ain matrices KE(I,J) ,K, (I,J)
I varies from 1 to N1 u
J varies from 1 to N1

O(I,J)=C -:1 (I,J)"'1:; (I,J)

X1(r)=1.0
I=1,1~1

X2=X2+X1 (I)"X1 (I)

IS
I> I~ 1

YES

E=U.O
E1(r)=0.0
I=1,,~1

E 1 ( I) =E 1 ( I) + 0 ( I ,J )" X 1 (J )
J = 1 ,,~ 1
I=1,i~1

E=E+X1 (I) "E1( I)

I=1 ,N 1
 K =K+ 1

YES

YES

NO

X1(I)=X(I)
I=1,1~1

Write >... X(I)

I=1,N1
"

Fig. 4.4 Flow C hart for Subroutine EIG EN.

 C HAPT ER - 5 -

NUI~ERIC AL ANAL YSIS AND DISC USSILlNS

5.1 INTRLllJUCTILlN

The theoretical investigations and the computer

program developed and described in the preceeding chapters

enable the solution of a wide variety of problems. In this

chapter, several numerical examples are treated to prove

the accuracy of the solution procedure and also to arrive

ae some important conclusions regarding the bracing effects

on stability. The problems are arranged in accordance with

the type of buckling considered and are described in subse-

quent articles. Since the critical load is a function of

the sectional properties, a specific choice of the section

is made first and is mentioned at the beginning of each

description. T he critical load of an unbraced member is first

found and then compared with the available theoretical

. 38 41
solut~ons ' • T he convergence of the solution is also

depicted. T he effects of load height, the stiffness and

position of restraints are investigated and presented graphi-

cally.

5.2 AXIALL Y CUI~PRESSEO I~EM8ERS

Axiallycompressedthin-walled members may buckle by

pure torsion or by a combination of torsion and flexure.

 86

80th these types of buckling have been investigated. At

first, the convergence of the solution is tested for increa-

sing number of elements and then the influence of restraints

is studied.

5.2.1 8uckling by Pure Torsion

Pure torsional buckling is considered here in an

example of an axially loaded doubly symmetric I-section.

A pin ended column of 2"x2"xl/8" cross-section and of 100

inches length has been selected for this purpose. T he load

is assumed to be applied at the centroid of the section.

The deviation of the critical load obtained from the present

finite element analysis from that of its exact value using

analytical procedures of T imoshenko38 is shown in Fig. 5.1.

In this figure, the percentage of error is drawn against

the number of finite elements in which the member is divided.

It is found that the critical load differs by about 4~ .from

its exact value for a one element solution while for the

two element solution it varies by only about 0.11,t. For

four and five element solutions, the value differs by O.OOSk

and O.OO~respectively and both of them may be considered

as the exact solution.

The effect of torsional restraints on the stability

of the same column is shown in Fig. 5.2. T he column is

 1 2 3

-------NUMBER OF ELEMENTS

Fig. 5.1 CONVERGENCE OF FINITE E~~mNT SOLUTION

FOR PURE TORSIONAL BUCKLING

:;:<
<w
:;:
3.0
~-_X X X X
__ A
wOO
alo
w
°u<
W 2.5
Ua::
<Ill
a::z
al:J
a:: a::
00
u.u.
ff ~ 2.0
Q.a:
U "
38
--- - TIMOSHENKo'S SOLUTION.
---AUTHOR~S SOLUTION

X RESTRAINTLOCATIONS

5 10 15 20 25 I

A_~
------. ,... - G J
Pig. 5.2 RELATION BETWEEN INCREASED STABILITY AND
TORSIONAL RESTRAINT STIFFNESS
 88

divided into five elements of equal lengths and four res-

traints of equal stiffnesses are attached at the four

intermediate nodes as shown in the figure. The critical

loads are then calculated for increasing values of the

restraint sti ffnesses and represented graphically in Fig. 5. 2.

F or convenience, the torsional restraint stiffness is expre-

ssed in the non-dimensional form 13= K !I-/(c; J) . T he ordinate

<P
of the graph also represents the non-dimensional ratio c

of the critical load for the braced column to that for an

unbraced one. F or the same braced column, the critical load

has also been calculated from a solution of differential

equations presented by T imoshenko and is shown by dotted

line in the same figure. It may be mentioned that T imoshenko' s

solution gives the critical load for a uniform distribution

of torsional restraints along the length of the member and

hence K is taken here as the resultant stiffness at each

<P

node. The resul ts are however, .in good agreement wi th the~

author's result except that the solution by T imoshenko gives

a little higher critical loads for higher values of restraint

stiffnesses. Also, it may be concluded from the figure that

there is a limiting value of 13 above which the critical

load does not increase with the increase Of restraint stiff-

ness. T his was also shown by Nethercot 26 and the reaSOn

behind this is that at a particular limiting value of the

restraint stiffness, they act as complete bracings and t~e

,
 89

column buckles in a mode so that nodes form at all the

restraint locations. Thus once the limiting value of the

restraint is arrived, there will be no further increase in

the critical load with the increase of restraint stiffnesses.

5.2.2 8uckling by Torsion and Flexure

When a singly symmetric thin-walled section is acted

upon by axial loads, it buckles by a combination of torsion

and flexure. A pin ended column of 2"x2"x1/8" channel sec-

tion is selected for this investigation. Here the shear

centre and the centroid do not coincide, and when the axial

load is applied at the centroid, the section rotates about

the shear centre and also undergoes translation. T he exact

value of critical load for the unbraced column has been

calculated by solving the differential equations38 and

the deviation of author's solution from the exact solution

is shown graphically in Fig. 5.3. Here also the percentage

of error is plotted against the number of elements used and

it is observed that for four and five elements, the solution

may be treated as exact.

The relationship between increased stability and the

restraint stiffness for this case is shown in Fig. 5.4.

The restraints resist the movement in the z-direction and

curves are plotted for cases when they are attached at the

two extremes of the flange and al so at the centroid. For

 23

<r
0
<r
<r
w
22
u.
0
W
<!>
<{
t-
Z
w
u 2
<r
w
a.

I ~
I- L ~
~I
[

-----~ IIUNBER OF ELEI-IENTS

Fig. 5.3 CONVERGENCE OF-FINITE ELEMENT
SOLUTION FOR
10- TORSIONAL-FLEXURAL BUCKLING

B y~-
o
1 J=Z~

hy

c
fEnREME
~'iD
~p
_ x x

6
u
Restraints at extreme end of flange

----

Restraints at centroid

[Restraints at near end of flange

----- Theoretical s')lution

--- Author's 50lul ion

2
4 6 8
10 12
----~.-~ = ki L'/(48Elyl

Fig. 5.4 c VS. A CURVE FOR TORSIONAL-FLEXURAL

BUCKLIllG
 91

convenience, here also, the restraint stiffness is repre-

sented by a non-dimensional parameter A = K -10 3/( 48EI ). The

z y
corresponding critical loads obtained from Temoshenko's

solution are also shown by dotted lines, and.it is clear

that both the solution are in very good agreement. Here also,

it is obvious that after a certain value of the restraint

stiffness is reached, the critical load ceases to increase.

It can also be concluded that the maximum value of the

critical load is obtained when the restraints are attached

at a maximum distance away from the shear centre. T his is,

however, depicted by Fig. 5.5.

Fig. 5.5 shows how the location of restraints influences

the critical load. In this figure, the critical load ratio

c is plotted against hy/D, where h is the y-coordinate of

y
the location of restraint and 0 represents the width of the

flange. It is evident from the figure that for a particular

value of the restraint stiffness, the critical load becomes

greater as the distance between the shear centre and the

restraint increases. In Fig. 5.5 a number of such curves

)
are drawn for different values of A, and it appears that

when the point of attachment of the restraint is close to

the shear centre, the restraint effect becomes negligible.

Another important conclusion is that with the increasing

stiffnesses of the restraints, the effect of their location

on the eritical value of the load becomes more prominent,

 p

i x x

Z
x

/. o ./
,
"J
6

o
-1.5 -1.0 0.5 0 0.5 1.0
------~~-hyJ(D/2)

11g. 5.5 c Vs. hy/{D/2) CURVE ?OR TORSIONAL-

FLEXURAL BUCKLING
 93

T he torsional and lateral modes of buckling for the

same column are shown in Fig. 5.6 and 5.7 respectively.

These modes are shown for different locations of restraints

of-vary in g sti ffn esses.

5.3 LATERAL BUCKLIN:; BY EQUAL END MOMENTS

A 100 inches long beam, subjected to equal end moments

has been taken for this analysis. T he beam is of thin

rectangular cross-section of dimensions 2"xi" and its ends

are simply supported. The corresponding critical values

for the end couples are calculated and then compared with

their exact values. T his comparison is represented graphi-

cally in Fig. 5. B by plotting the curve for percentage of

error with increasing number of elements.

It shows that for a one element solution, the percen-

tage of error is 10.2710. T he subsequent percentages of error

for 4 and 5 elements areO.tJ5~ dno"O~O~respectively.

Thus, for the five element solution, the critical load can

be taken as exact and the beam will be divided into five

elements for the next analysis.

The influence of lateral restraints on the same beam

is shown in Fig. 5.9. T he lateral restraints are provided

at the four intermediate nodes and as the beam buckles

laterally in the y-direction, these restraints resist the

 20 - Restraints at boHom flange
----Restraints at top flo og e
15

-e
10 1\ =0.13
7\ =0
5 1\=0.673

0
0
---0.75----- 0.50
0.75 1.0
••• X/L
Fig. 5.6. TORSIONAL COMPONENT (RELATIVE)
OF
THE BUCKLING MODE

20

3 10
7\= 0.13
5
1'-.=0.0
--------......:
o
0.25 0.50
X/L 0.75 1.0

-10

-20

Fig. 5.7 FLEXURAL COMPONE.'1T (RELATIVE) OF THE

BUCKLING MODE
 1

M
0
<r 2
(,£ M)
<r
UJ

UJ
0
.,1
UJ
<:>
~ 1
I-
Z
UJ
U
<r
UJ
a.

1 2 3 4 5
•• NUMBER OF ELEMENTS
Fig. 5.8 CONVERGENCE Oll' lINITE ELEMENT SOLUTION ?OR LATERAL
BUCKLING UNDER EQUAL I:.'ND MOMENTS

B
RESTRAINTS AT TOP

u RESTRAINTS AT MIDDLE
z

Coo
g 1)
4

1 x x x x
r y
r L,s _I L,S + L,S ./ L,S
~
L, S I
2

X- LOCHION 011' RESTRAINTS

5 10 15 20 25
---.-7\ = KyLJ/(48 EII)
?lg. 5.9 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INCREASED STABILITY ~~D
RESTR..INT STI?FW;';SS UNDER EQU.i.L &'lD MOI4EJTS
 96

movement of the beam in that direction only. F or this case

.\= K y .Q, 3/( 48 EI z). Two CUrves are drawn in Fig. 5.9. 0 ne of

these corresponds to the case when the restraints are attached

at the top and the other for the restraints at the middle of

the section. It is evident from the c vs • .\curve of Fig. 5.9

that the maximum critical load is obtained when the restraints

are attached at the top i. e. at the compression zone. Th.is

result is in complete agreement with the discussion of

K .t.
~ ~pornc h a~.21 • 0 ne more ~mpor
. ttl' . th a t re I a-
an conc us~on ~s

tively small values of .\ can ensure the complete bracing.

The torsional component of the buckling mode for this

case is shown in Fig. 5.10. It is observed from this figure

that when there is no restraint attached to the beam ( .\= D)

the rotation takes place in one direction only. But when

restraints are attached, the beam may reverse the rotation

along its span. The curves drawn in Fig. 5.10 are, however,only

for the case when the restraints are attached to the centroid

of beam cross-sections. The behaviour remains the same when

they are attached at the top of the section with differences

in relative magnitudes only.

Fig. 5.11 represents the flexural component of the

combined mode for the same beam under the same loading. Here

also the buckling mode for no restraint case is unidirectional

but when restraints are attached, the lateral displacements

changes sharply from one direction to the other.

 7\.=0
0.5-
7\. =4.16

"I\. =2.079

X/L

FIG. 5.10 TORSIONAL COMPON~NT (RELATIVE) OF BUCKLING

MODE UNDER EQUAL EIlD MOMENTS

10

>
X/L

11=0.416
-71.=2.079
-5 - i\=4.19
7\=0.0

-1
,
FIG. 5.11 FLEXURAL COMPONENT (RELATIVE) OF BUCKLING
MODE UNDER EQUAL END MOMENTS
 98

5.4 LATEAAL tJUCKLIN.:;UNDER CDNCENTilATED LOADS

S.4.1 Single Concentrated Load at the r~idspan

To investigate the lateral buckling by a single COn-

centrated load at the middle, a simply supported doubly

symmetric I-beam has been taken. The beam is 90 inches long

and its cross-sections are of 2"x8"x1/8" dimensions. The

critical value of the load for this beam (without restraints)

obtained from Timoshenko's SOlution38 is 2.11 kips and the

corresponding value calculated for a four element division

of the beam is 2.10 kips. T he finite element analysis of

some more beams for single concentrated loads at the middle

gave results practically coincident with those obtained by

T imoshenko's solution.

In Fig. 5.12, the relationship between increased

stability and lateral restraint is depicted by the c vs. A

curves for the above mentioned beam. Three curves are drawn

showing the variation of the critical load for increasing

stiffness values of restraints attached at the top or compre-

ssion flange, at the middle of the section and at the bottom

or tension flange. It is observed that the restraints become

maximum effective when they are attached at the compression

flange and the corresponding critical loads are maximurn. On

the other hand, when the restraints are attached to the

tension flange of the beam the increase in critical load

 12

10

Restraints at top flange

a

p X-location at Restraints
u
6 X X X

/. L /4'1 Ll4 -I- L/4 I Ll4 .1

4
Netherc:t~ ~o~U~i~n _

~
[
-- -- Restraints at the middle
2

Restraints at bottom flange

o
o 5 10 15

---~.- 7\= Kyl1/(48Elzl

~1g. 5.12 c Vs. A CURVE POR A CONCENTRATED LOAD AT

THE MIDDLE
 100

is negligible and the restraints may be considered as not

much effective. This once again confirms the Kitipornchai's

21
discussion on the paper by Roeder and Assadi 33. T he results

obtained by attaching the restraints at the centroid of

sectionsare compared with those of the approximate equation

26
given by Nethercot • Nethercot's solution is also represented

in Fig. 5.12 by the dotted line and it shows a quite good

agreement al though at higher values of .\ • the solution

slightly Overestimates the critical load. T his was, however,

indicated by Nethercot himself in his original paper.

The variation of the critical loads with different

positions of restraints is illustrated by the c vs. h /H

z
curves shown in Fig.
5.13. Here h z represents the distance
between the restraints and the centroid and H represents

the total height of the section. The curves indicate that

for all values of .\ , other than zero,the critical load

of the beam increases as the distance between the centroid

of the section and the restraint in compression zone increases.

The buckling modes for the torsional and lateral displacements

are shown in Fig. 5.14 and Fig. 5.15 respectively. These

diagrams show that the buckling displacements do not reverse

along the span for the particular case of concentrated loading

considered above.
 12

10
z

8
hz
y
H
71.=3.31
u
6

o
-0.50 -0.25 0.25 0.50

Fig. 5.13 RELATIONSHIP BETWF.~N INCREASED STABILITY AND

LOCATION OF RESTRAINTS
 2

--RESTRAINTSAT BOTTOM FLANGE

-- --RESTRAINTS AT TOP FLANGE
7\ =15.37
1 7\ =6.33
7\ =1.51
71.=0.6
J\ = 0
0.25 0.50 0.75
o 1.00 1.25
X/L

7\=0.6

-1
I
'-----A = O.
5
/
/
/

-2 /
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
-3 /

Pig. 5.14 RELATIVE TORSIONAL CO~WONENT OF BUCKLING

MODE UNDER A CENTRAL CONC::<:NTRATEDLOAD
15

------7\ = O.5

71.= 0.2
7\=2.1
7\ = 0.6
7\= 0

J
O.D 0.50 0.75 X/L
1.25
Fig. 5,15 RELATIVE PLEXURAL COMPONENT OF BUCKLING
/dODE UND<::R'A, SINGLE CONCENTRATED LOAD
 103

5.4.2 8ucklingby a Pair of Concentrated Loads

Fig. 5.16 represents the relationship between increased

stability and stiffnesses of lateral restraints for two

concentrated loads acting on the same I-beam discussed above

and at the locations shown in the figure. As earlier, c vs.

A curves are drawn for the three cases of restraints

attached at the top, middle and bottom of the section. The

critical values of concentrated loads P for this case

(without restraints) are calculated to be 1.603 kips as

againsts 2.1 kips for the single midspan load in the previous

case. The nature of the curves are almost analogous to the

previous ones showing negligible effect of the tension

flange restraints and maximum effect of the top flange

restraints.

The relationship between increased stability and

location of restraints is shown in Fig. 5.17; As in the

previous cases it shows that the critical value of the loads

increases as the restraints are attached to the beam in the

compression zone away from the shear centre. But the main

difference is that for higher values of A, the curves.of c

against h z /H have a double curvature; first they are concave

upward and then the same curves become concave downward.

This indicates that for higher values of A, the rate of

increase of the critical load decrease with the increase

,I
of the distance between the shear centre and the point of
 p p
12

lC-Location of Restraints

10

Restraints at top tlange

u
6

at middle

2
Restraints at bottom

5 10 15 20
--- ••-!'.. = KLL1/(48EIzl

Fig. 5.16 c VS. 'A CURVE POR A PAIR OF CONCENTRATED

LOADS
 Z

12
hz
]...=15.07
Y

10
1--0--1
~= 9.04

"l\. =3.0 1
u

!I. =1.503

]...=0,6
2 -,...=0,30

o
-0.5 -0,25 o 0.25 0.50
----"' ••• h zl H

Fig. 5.17 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INCREASED STABILITY

AND LOCATION OP RESTRAINTS
 106

attachment of the restraints in compression zone. However,

for lower values of A , the curves are still concave upward

indicating that the rate of increase of the critical load

always increases with the increase in the corresponding

distance between the shear centre and the restraint locations.

The critical modes of buckling for this case also

show a marked difference from those for the previous analysis.

The torsional and lateral components of buckling modes are

illustrated in Fig. 5.18 and Fig. 5.1 9 respectively. These

diagrams show that for lower A values, the buckling modes

are of single curvature while for higher values they may be

of double curvature.

5.5 CLJI'lI:JINEO INFLUENCE OF LOAD AI~O RE5TRAIl\iT LEVELS

In the analysis discussed in the preceeding article,

it was assumed that the concentrated load acted at the

level of the centroid of the beam. But as described in

art. 3.5 and also shown by T imoshenk038, the level of the

application of load has a considerable effect on the critical

load and in this article an attempt has been made to depict

that influence. The present analysis is carried out for the

same beam used for the previous analyses with the same

dimensions. The critical loads are calculated for the cases

with the concentrated load acting at the top flange, centroid

 15

10

5 7\=1.507

7\.=0

X/L

7\ =3.013
7\=15.07

-5

-10

-15

Pig. 5.18 RELATIVE TORSIONAL COMPONENT OP THE BUCKLING

MODE UNDER TWO CONCENTRATED LOADS
 30

20 A= 0
A.=1.507

10

>
1.0 X/L

i\= 15. 07

71.= 30.13
-10

-20

-30

.Pig. 5.19 RELATIVE FLEXURAL COMPONENT Oli' BUCKLING

MODE UNDER TWO CONCENTRATED LOADS
 109

and bottom flange of the mid span cross section. Comparison

of the
results for an unbraced beam with those obtained by
3B
T imoshenko has been presented in Table 5.1. T his table

shows a good agreement with T imoshenko solution for the

small range of eccentricity considered here. Still a devia-

tion from the T imoshenko solution is indicated for loads

at the
bottom flange. T his fact was also marked by Beilin
4
and Kilimov • As indicated by T imoshenko, the critical value

of the load is linearly dependent on the distance of the

point of application of the load from the shear centre of

the section. But Beilin and Kilimov showed that the rela-

tionship is not linear and for very large values of load

heights in tension zones, the critical load should have some

finite value and not infinite as obtained from T imoshenko' s

solution. Thus the present analysis agrees with that of

8eilin and Kilimov.

Table 5.1 Comparison with Timoshenko's results

Level of load Critical ( kips)

load
application
T imoshenko's Author's

Top flange 1 • 42 1. 42
Centroid 2. 12 2. 10
8ottom fl ange 3. 1S 3.0 B
 110

The combined effect of load and restraint levels has

been presented in Fig. 5.20. Here also the curves have been

drawn with c as the ordinate and A as the abscissa but for

this figure, c represents the ratio of the critical load

for the braced beam to that of an unbraced beam with the

load acting at the top flange which gives the minimum

critical load. The curves indicated by firm lines have been

drawn for the case with t-he load and the restraints acting

at the same level. It is evident from the curves that for

lower values of A , the effect of load height becomes dominant

while for higher values of A , the effect of restraint levels

become dominant. However, as the critical load increases

when the load moves from top to bottom and decreases when the

restraints do so, combinations with the load and restraints

acting at the two extremes have been studied and presented

by broken lines in Fig. 5.20. It is obvious that the increase

in critical load is minimum and-almost negligible when the

load acts at the top flange and the restraints are attached

at the bottom flange. On the other hand, for the case with

the load at the bottom flange and the restraints at the top

flange, the corresponding critical load is maximum. This is

a very important consideration and may be used conveniently

in design. If the above is properly considered, a substantial

 12

/"'"
----
.•..•. --------
1

Load at bottom, _ ----

restrainls at top "..,----
....- ./
"..,./
8 ....-
./
./
./
/'

6 and restraints at top

Load and restra'lnts at the middle

Load and restraints at bottom

____________ .....1rLoad at top, restraints at bottom flange' _

o 2 4 6 6 10 12

Fig. 5.20 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INCREASED STABILITY AND RESTRAINT

STHFNESS FOR DIFFERENT POSITIONS OF LOADS AND
RESTRAINTS
 11 2

economy of materials may follow in design of some specific

structures.

5. 6 II~T ER PeT.ION OF TWO ffiNC ENTR AT ED LOADS

In article 5.4.2, the relationship between increased

stability and restraint stiffness has been presented for a

pair of identical concentrated loads. In this article, an

attempt has been made to depict the behaviour when the loads

are not of equal values. To carryout this investigation,

the beam and the loading positions have been kept same as

in article 5.4.2. T he critical values have been calculated

for different ratios of the loads and is presented in the

form of interaction diagrams in Fig. 5.21. In this figure,

the critical values of the two loads are represented along

the two coordinate axes and a number of curves have been

drawn for different values of A . It is evident from the

curves that the critical value of anyone of the loads

increases as the other is decreased and an abrupt change

in slope of the curves occurs when both the loads become

equal. Thus from these curves it is possible to obtain the

critical value of one of the loads when the other is kept

constant. However, it may be mentioned that the interaction

curves drawn in Fig. 5.21 are for the loads acting at the

centroid and the restraints attached at the top flange.

 25 z

hy
2 y H

V1
a.
~ I. 0 .1
~
~
a.

25

-~.- P2 IN KIPS

Fig. 5.21 INnRACTION OF TlfO CONCENTRATED LOADS""

 11 4

Similar curves may be obtained for other combinations of

loading" and retraints.

5.7 LATERAL BUCKLING OF CURVED BEAMS

The lateral buckling of curved beams can be investi-

gated by the procedure described in Chapter 3. To clarify

this, a doubly symmetric circular I-beam has been taken.

The beam makes an angle rr/2 at its centre and both of its

ends are hinged and free to warp. The curved length of the

beam is 50 ft. and the radius of the circle of whi~h the

beam is a part is 31. B3 ft. T he cross-sectional dimensions

remain ~ame as those of the straight beam investigated and

described in article 5.4. For finite element analysis the

beam has been divided into twelve elements of equal length.

The critical values of a single concentrated load at the

mispan for different values of A have been calculated and

compared with the results obtained by Anwar.1 It has been

found that the critical load obtained by this analysis

without restraints) is 12.136 kips, while for the same beam,

the result obtained by Anwar's analysis is 12.B4 kips."This

shows a very good agreement of the results. The relationship

between increased stability and restraint stiffness for this

beam has been presented in Fig. 5.22. I t is observed from

 p
z

hy
H Y

RESTRAINTS AT CENTROID

o 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25

0.00 0.05

•
?ig.5.22 RELAtIONSHIP BETWEEN INCREASED STABILITY AND
. RESTRJ.INT STU'PNESS FOR A THIN_'RALLED CURVED
BEAM nTH J. SINGLE CONCENTRATED LOAD AT THE
MIDDLE
 116

the curves that as for the previous cases, the critical

load increases sharply with the-increase of restraint stiff-

ness but after a certain value of the stiffnesses of the

restraints is reacheD, there is' no further increase in the

critical load. However, for this case, the critical loads

obtained by attaching the restraints at the centroids is

not that much pronounced as obtained in previous cases of

straight beams.
 C HAPT rn 6

EXPER IMENT AL INV EST IG AT ION AND CDMPPR ISDN

6.1 EXPErlII~ENTAL SC HEME

The study of the available publications and the compa-

rison of the results obtained by the present analysis with

the known solutions confirms the validity of the theoretical

investigation described in Chapter 3. T he results of the

numerical analyses have been presented in Chapter 5. However,

the results of some additional investigations that have

insufficient past details have also been included in that

chapter. These include the cases of beams loaded by a con-

centrated load at the top or middle with restraints also

attached at these levels. In order to obtain experimental

evidences for these investigations, a brief experimental

scheme has been undertaken and is described in this chapter.

The investigations in the laboratory were conducted

in two phases. In the first phase, the test specimens and

the accessories were prepared in the sheet metal and welding

shop_and in the second phase the specimens were tested by

the beam testing machine in the structures and materials

laboratory of BUET •

6.2 PrlEPPKATIIH OF TEST SPECIMENS AND ACCESSORIES

The test specimens include one symmetric I-beam and

I
one thin rectangul~r beam. Both the beams are 8 ft. in length
 11 8

and when they are placed on the supports, the effective

length becomes 7'-6". Each support consists of a concrete

block with two steel rods projected Upward in such a manner

that when a beam is placed on the sUpports in between the

rods, the rods do not allow it to twIst at that point.

However, the beam actually rest on the roller and hinge

bearings that are placed upon the concrete block and together

form the traditional Simple support condition without res-

training free warping at the ends. fhe Overall system includ_

ing the I-beam section and the thin-rectangular beam section

that have been taken for this investigation are shown in

Fig. 6.1 and Fig. D.2 respectively.

f he beams were made from 1/8" thick steel plates. For

the I-beam, the plates were cut as per required dimensions

and welded together to form the web and flanges. A number of

hooks were also welded to the beams, as shown in Fig. 6.1,

along the centroidal axis to facilitate the attachment of

the springs to the midsection of the beams. In order to

attach the springs at the top of the beams, holes were

created at both ends of the top flange and also at the top

of the thin-rectangular beam. fhe holes were located just

above the hooks and the position Of the hooks are shown
ooth in Fig. 0.1 and Fig. 6.2.

fhe other ends of the restraints were hooked to two

secondary thin rectangular plates that were clamped with the

 A,

I"
l~,"
-I- I ~ 6" ,'-," 'Ie 1'- ,"
..I. ,'I .1
l~

POSITION OF HOOK
STEEL
ROD

ROLLER
BEARING
CONCRETE BLOCK
X X X

HINGE
BEARING
l'
::<0 _7
_

AJ
~
7. - 6"
j" .1
I ~-o
' "
./
I BEAM

liS' HOLE

,
'"
HOOK

I. 2
. .1 ~
:=J

SEC. A-A

Fig. 6.1 THE I~BEAM

 81
-1-
•
H
•
+ ,
1-6
"
+ .1
POSITIO N OF HOOK

STEEk
ROD x x x x
ROLLER
;jr";:.f.'
SEARING ':;'::..: CONCRETE BLOCK
.••..•...
't HINGE
BEARING

I. 7'_ &"

I~ 8'- 0"

THIN RECTANGULAR BEAM

1/4
• HOLE

SEC. B-B

Fig. 6.2 THE BEAM OF THIN RECTANGULAR

CROSS- SECTION
 121

columns of the beam testing machine by collars and bolts.

T he details of these secondary thin rectangular plates with

the device of attaching them with the machine columns is

shown in Fig. 6. J, A number of identical springs were pro-

cured from a local market and they were used as elastic

restraints. The stiffnesses of all the springs were equal

and was calculated to be 4.5 Ib/inch for each. The calcula_

tion of the spring COll"tdllc is presentea in I1ppenaix-d.

6.3 TESTI~ OF mACEO BEAr~S

As already mentioned, the beams were tested by the beam

testing machine in the structures and materials laboratory

of BUET. f he supports were placed on the machine seat and

the beam was rested on these SLpports inbetween the projected

steel rods. In order to ensure free lateral deflection of

the beams, the load was applied to them by a roller bearing

device. A typical test set up is shown in Plate 6.1.

fhe secondary thin rectangular plates were then clamped

with the columns of the machine by collars and bolts On both

Sides of the testing beam. One end of the springs were then.

connected to the beam and the other end to the secondary

plate through the hooks. T hey were, however, placed on both

sides of the beam. fwo deflectometers, one at each side of

the beam, were then placed at the mid span to measure the

deflection of that point at every stage of loading. After

proper adjustment of the deflectometers the beam might b~
,
considered as ready for test. Plate 6.2 shows the set up.
at this stage.
1- 9
, " • •
1-6 .
1-6 " ,
1- 6
" ,
1- 9
"

x x

Bol Collar
, " Machine column
3- 6

(a) Elevation of the Secondary Plate

•
1/8 Thick Collar

'. "I, THICK EXTR A •

PLATE 1/4 Thick Secondary
P LAN plate
3'
I' 3" 3"
,, ,-
I
U
II "
II
" G G II
I,
,I
II
<:D e fi
If II

>-
0 e
II
"
II"
II
"
II

"
II"
e e
1
II
II
II
!! !! I.

ELEVATION

(b) Plan and Elevation of the Attaching Device.

Fig. 6.3 DETAILS OP THE SECffiDARY PLATE A..c'l'DTEE

ATTACHING DEVICE
 Plate 6.1 A typical test set up.

--~---- -----------~--------- - --.- -

Plate 6.2 T he restrained beam just before loading.

 124

The load was then applied at a moderate rate and the

teadings of both the deflectometers were noted at certain

intervals. The loading was stopped when the deflectometers

showed large values-of deflection. T he deflection pattern

at this stage was observed and noted.

A total of four tests with different positions of

restraints were carried out. The results of these investi-

gations are presented in the next article.

6.4 RESULT S UF EXPER H1EI\lT,AND DIS: USSIONS

A total of four tests have been performed with a I-beam

and a beam of thin-rectangular cross section having dimensions

given earlier in Fig. 6.1. The results of these investigations

have been presented in this article with a brief discussion

on each of them. All the four tests have been divided into

two broad groups; one having the tests with the I-beam and

the other with the beam Of thin- rectangular section. These

groups have further been divided into two subgroups to

differentiate the tests according to the position of the

restraints.

6.4.1 Test wi th Beam of Thin Rectangular Section

T es t 1:
In the first test the beam Of thin rectangular

cross-section was loaded at the top of the midspan section

1
 125

and the restraints were attached to it in all the holes

created at the top of the sections. The result of the test

is tabulated in Appendix_A, Table A.1.

A curve of load versus deflection has also been drawn

for this test and is shown in Fig. 6.4, Here the deflections

are obtained from one deflectometer only. The other deflecto_

meter, however, have been ..

used in all the tests to have a

check of deflections. Values of critical loads that fOllow

from the 2nd deflectometer readings, in this and the follow-

ing tests, confirms that from the first deflectometer readings.

It is evident from the curve that the critical load obtained

from this test is 137 lbs. The corresponding critical load

obtained from the numerical analysis is 129 lbs. This shows

a variation of experimental criti~al load from the corres_

ponding theoretical by about 6.~. However, bearing in mind

that complete idealization of the problem is not possible,

the experimental result obtained for this case may be consi-

dered acceptable.

The beam at its final stage is shown in Plate 6.3.

This plate shows clearly the mode of buckling of the beam.

T he beam here buckles by three sine waves. It may be mentioned

at this point that the theoretical mode of buckling for the

same beam also shows a similar nature.
 126

Test 2: T his test was performed with the restraints attached

at all the hooks along the centroidal axis of the thin rec-

tangular beam. The load was applied at the previously men-

tioned point, i. e. at the top of the midspan section. The

result of this test is shown in Appendix-A, Table A.2.

A load versus deflection curve has also been drawn

for this test (F ig. 6.5) and it is evident from the curve

that the critical value of the load obtained from this test

is 113 Ibs. T he corresponding theoretical critical load

obtained from the numerical analysis is 108 Ibs. T his shows

a variation of about 4.61,. T his variation is quite acceptable

and may be considered to confirm the accuracy of the theore-

tical investigations. T he beam at the final stage of loading

is shown in Plate 6.4.

6.4.2Tests with I-beam

Test 3: T he test has been performed with the restraints

attached along the top flange and with a single concentrated

load applied at the top of the midspan cross-section of the

beam. The restraints were,however, attached at all the"holes

of the upper flange indicated in Fig. 6.1. T he results of

this test are presented in Appendix-A, Table A.3. T his table

gives the two deflectometer readings at different stages of

loading shown.
 200

til 1
Cl
z
::l
137
o
a..
~
Cl 100
<
o
....•

t 50

100 200 300 400

-DEFLECTION x1pOO INCH

?ig. 6.4 LOAD VS. DEFLECTION CURVE FOR TEST 1

150

til

~113
::J
~ 100

z
Cl
<
o
....• 50

t
100 200 300 400
•• DEFLECTION l< 1000 INCH

Fig. 6.5 LOAD V5. DEFLECTION CURVE FOR TEST 2

 Plate 6.3 Beam of test 1 at its final stage.

Plate 6.4 8eam of test 2 at its final stage.

 129

Analysis of these datas reveal that the critical

load for this particular case is 2250 pounds. However, the

corresponding critical load obtained from the numerical

analysis is 2016 pounds. This shows a variation of the

experimental critical load from the corresponding theore-

tical by about 11. 6f,. Although the difference in these two

values is considerable, the increase in the experimental

value may be attributed to the fact that the complete idea-

lization of the loading and support conditions were not

practically possible and the application of the load at the

upper flange also could restrict the free lateral buckling

to some extent, The beam at the final stage is shown in

Plate 6.5.

Test 4: In this test, the I-beam was loaded at the upper

flange level of the midspan section and the restraints

were attached in all the hooks along the centroidal axis

of the beam. The test set up has already been shown in

Plate 6.2. The results of this test is given in Appendix-A,

Table A.4.

It is evident from this table that the critical load

for this particular case is 2100 pounds. The corresponding

critical load obtaihed by the present numerical analysis is

found to be 1735 pounds. Thus, here also the experimental

Plate 6.5 Beam of test 3 at its final stage.
 1 31

value of the critical load is higher than the numerical

value and the variation for this case is 21~. T his deviation

is quite significant but it seems that higher value of the

experimental result is due to theoretical idealization of

both loading and support conditions, which can not be

attained in practical experiments.

 CHAP TER 7 -

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE STUDY

7. 1 GEN ER AL

Finite element analysis for the study of torsional

and torsional-flexural buckling of restrained thin-walled.

columns and beams has been presented. Based on the formula-

tion presented in Chapter 3, a computer program has been

developed and a number of numerical analyses have been

performed. Different loading conditions have been considered

with different restraints of variable stiffnesses placed

at various locations both along the length of the member and

along the height of the sections. All these analyses have

shown very good agreements with the experimental investiga-

t~ons presented in Chapter 6 and together revealed some

interesting findings. T he following conclusions and recommen-

dations are based on these findings.

7. 2 C~OI~CLUS 10 I~5

1) Buckling by torsion and a combination of torsion and

flexure can be investigated by a single finite element

formulation. The results obtained from a two element solution

are quite acceptable and those for a four or five element

solution may be treated as exact.

 133

2) In general, when restraints are attached to a thin-

walled beam, the buckling load of the beam increases, but

the location of restraints has a great in~luence on the

load carrying capacity. The increase_in critical load is

maximum when the restraints are attached in the compression

zone at a maximum distance away from the shear centre. On

the other hand, when the restraints .are attached in the

tension zone, the critical load decreases with the increase

in the distance between the point of attachment of the

restraints and the shear centre.

3) For each point of attachment of the restraints, there

is always a limiting value of the restraint stiffnesses,

an increase above which does not increase the critical load.

This condition may be termed as complete bracing of the

beam and the beam buckles at this stage with no displacement

or rotation of the point of attachment of the restraints.

4) The modes of buckling depend on the loading conditions,

properties of section and also On the stiffnesses and loca-

tions of restraints.

5) The critical load is maximum when the load acts at

the extremity of tension zone and is minimum when it acts

at the compression zone extremity. But the critical value

of the load is not linearly dependent on the distance of

 134

the point of application of tRe load from the shear centre

of the section as indicated in classical solution. Instead

a nonlinear relationship exists so that the critical load

does not become infinitely large when the load acts in the

tension zone at a considerable distance away from the shear

centre.

6) F or curved beams, the increase in critical load for

restraints attached at the compression zone extremity com-

pared to that when the restraints are attached at the shear

centre, is not that much pronounced as for straight beams.

7.3RECUI~MENDATIONSFDR FUTURE STUDY

In the present analysis only the overall torsional

and torsional-flexural stability of restrained thin-walled

beams and columns have been presented. But it seems that

the phenomenon of local buckling may have an effect on the

overall buckling. Thus it is recommended to extend the

present work to take into account the interaction of local

and overall buckling of thin-walled beams and columns.

Another phenomenon that may influence the stability of

thin-walled beams is the initial curvature and twist that

usually exist in the beams due to imperfections in the

forming prpcesses. This consideration may be incorporated

in the present formulation.

 135

The formulation derived herein should find applica-

bility in the treatment of planar and space f~ameworks

having complicated geometFY and

- ,
for the general case of

noncoincidence of shear centre' and centroid of cross-

sections. Lastly it may be recommended to~extend the

present work for the treatment of inelastic buckling of

thin-walled beams and columns.

 REFERENCES

1. Anwar, A.f~.M.T., 'F ree Vibration of Loaded Thin-walled

Beams with Distributed and Discrete Elastic Restraints'
(in Russian), Ph.D. Thesis, Leningrad Civil Engineering
Institute, Leningrad, U.S.S.R., 19B1.

2. Barsoum, R .S., and Gallagher, R .H., 'F inite Element

Analysis of Torsional and T orsional-F lexural Stability
Problems', International Journal for I~umerical I~ethods
in Engineering, VoL 2, 1970.

3. Bathe, K.J., and Wilson, E.L., 'I~umerical Methods in

Finite Element Analysis', Prentice Hall, Inc., New
Jersey, 1976.

4. Beilin, E.A. and Kilimov, V.I., 'Influence of Load

Heights on the Frequency and I~odes of Free T orsional_
Flexural V ibrations of Beams' (in" ussian), Mekhanika
Stershnevikh System i Sploshnikh Sred, VoL 10, Leningrad,
U. S . S.R ., 1977.

5. Bleich, F ., 'Buckling Strength of Metal Structures',

Engineering Society r~onographs, Ma.:;raw-Hill, New York,
1 952.

6. Clrown, P,f., and T rahair, N.S., 'F inite Integral Solution

of Differential Equations', Civil Engineering T ransactionsT
Institution of Engineers, Australia, VoL CE 10, No.2,
Oct. 196B.

7. Clrush, D.O. and Almroth, B.D., 'Buckling of Bars,

Plates and Shells', Ma.:;raw Hill Book Company, 1975.
 137

8. C hai Hong. Yoo, 'F lexural Torsional Stability of

Curved Beams', Proc. Paper No. 17552, ASCE, EM Division,
December, 1982.

9. C hajes, A. and Winter, G ., 'Torsional-f" lexural Buckling

of Thin-Walled Members', Journal of the Structural
Division, ASCE, August, 1965.

1U. C ollatz, L., 'F unctional Analysis and Numerical

Mathematics', Academic,New York 1966.

11. Column Research Committee of Japan, 'Handbook of

Structural Stability', C orona Publishing, Tokyo, 1971.

12. Oibley, J.E., 'Lateral Torsional Buckling of I-sections

in Grade S5 Steel', Proc. of Institute of Civil Engineers,
VoL 43, August, 1969.

13. El-:; aaly, 1'l.A. and Khalifa, 1'1.K., 'Stability of Pony

T russ Bridges', Institution of Structural Engineers,
United Kingdom, June, 1970.

14. Flint, A.R., 'T he Influence of Restraints on the

Stability of Beams', Structural Engineer, Vol. 29, 1951.

1S. Gallagher, R .H., 'F inite Element Analysis Fundamentals',

Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1975.

16. Hancock, G.J., Bradford, M.A. and T rahair, IV.S. 'Web

Distortional and Flexural Torsional BUckling', Journal
of the Structural Division, ASCE, IVo. Sf 17, July, 1980.

17. Hancock, G .J. and Trahair, ,V.S., 'F inite Element Analysis
of the Lateral Buckling of Continuously Restrained Beam-
Columns', T he Institution of Australia, May, 1978.
 138

18. Hartmann, A.J., 'Elastic Lateral Buckling of Continuous

Beams', Journal of the Structural Division, AS:::E, \I 01.93,
I~O. Sf 4, Proc. Paper 5363, August, 1967.

19. Irons, B. and Ahmad, 5., 'If echniques of Finite Elements',

John Wiley and Sons, 1980.

20. JOhnston, B.G., 'G uide to Stability Design Criteria

for I~etal Structure', John Wiley and Sons, 3rd Edition,
I~ew York, 1976.

21. Kitipornchai, 5., Discussion on the Paper 'Lateral

Stability of I-8eams with Partial Supports', Journal
of the Structural Division, AS:::E, January 1984; 0 riginal
Paper by Roeder, W. and Assadi, 1'1., August, 1982.

22. Kitipornchai, S. and R itcher, I~.J., 'Elastic Lateral

Buckling of I-8eams with Discrete Intermediate
Restraints'. f he Institution of Australia, July, 1978.

23. Krajcinovic, D., 'A Consistent Discrete Elements

f eChniques for r hin-Walled Assemblages', Int. Journal
of Solids and Structures, \I 01. 5, 1969.

24. I~utton, B.t1. and T rahair, N.5., 'Stiffness Requirements

for Lateral Bracing', Journal of the Structural Division,
ASCE, \101. 99, No. ST10, 1973.

25. I~ ath, tJ., 'F undamentals Of Finite Elements for Engineers',

f he Al thone Press of the University of London, 19"74.

26. I~ethercot, D.A., '8uckling of Laterally or f orsionally

Restrained 8eams', Journal of the Engineering Mechanics
Division, E, r~o.
AS::: H14, August, 1973.
 139

27. I~ethercot, D.A., and Rockey, K.C., 'F inite Element

Solutions for the Buckling of Columns and Beams',
Int. Journal of Mechanical Sciences, Vol. 13, 1971.

2B. I~ethercot, D.A. and Rockey, K.C., 'T he Lateral 8uckling

of 8eams Having Discrete Intermediate Restraints',
Structural Engineer, Vol. 50, 1~0.10, LJctober, 1972.

29. LJjalvo, M., Demuts, E. and Tokarz, F ., '0 ut of Plane

8uckling of Curved Members', Journal of the Structural
Oivision, As.: E, Vol. 95, No. Sf .10, October, 1969.

30. Powell, e. and Klinger, R., 'Elastic Lateral Buckling

of Steel Beams', Journal of the Structural Division,
As.:E, Vol. 96, No. ST 9, September, 1970.

31. R ajasekaran, S. and R amm, E., 'L Dcal and r~ember

Stability of Thin-walled Straight and Curved Beams of
LJpen Sections', C Dmputer, 85, Proceedings of the Second
International Conference on Computer Aided Analysis and
Design in Civil Engineering, lJept. of Civil Engg.,
University ofRoorkee, India, Jan-Feb., 1985.

32. Rayleigh, T .W.S., 'The Theory of Sound', 2nd Edition,

Vol. 2, App. A, Dover, New York, 1965.

33. Roeder, C .W., and Assadi, M., 'Lateral Stability of

I-8eams with Partial Supports', Journal of the Structural
lJivision, As.:E, Vol. 109, I~o. Sf 8, August, 1982.' .

34. Salvadori, M.e. and 8aron, I~.L., 'I~umerical Methods

in Engineering', Prentice-Hall, EnglewOod Cliffs,
.'~.J., 1961.
 140
35. Schmidt, L.C., '" estraints Against Elastic Lateral
8uckling', Journal of the Engineering Mechanics
lJivision, ASCE,Vol.91,No.Er~6, Proc.Paper 4561,Dec.1965.

36. Symposium on T est I~ethods of C ompression I~embers',

ASTI~, Special Technical Publication I~o. 419, 1967.

37. Taylor, A.C. and 0jalvo, M., 'Torsional Restraints of

Lateral 8uckling', Journal of the Structural Division,
ASCE, Vo1.92, l~o.ST2, Proc. Paper 4776, April, 1966.

3B. T imoshenko, S.P. and G ere, J .I~., 'T heory of Elastic

Stability', 2nd Edition, Ma:;raw-Hill Book Company,
Inc. I~ew York, 1961.

3!j. Trahair, N.S., 'Elastic Stability of Continuous Beams',

Journal of the Structural Division, ASCE, Vol. 95,
No. ST 6, June 1969.

4lJ. r rahair, IV .S., 'T he Behaviour and Design of Steel

Structures', Chapman and Hall, London, Sydney I~ethuen
of Australia, 1977.

41. Vlasov, V.Z., 'T hin-Walled Elastic Beams', Second

Edition, Israel Program for Scientific Translations,
Jerusalem, 1961.

42. Wang, P.C. 'Numerical and Matrix Methods in Structural

r~echanics', John Wiley and Sons, Inc. New York, 1966.

43. Zienkiewicz, iJ.C., 'T he Finite Element r~ethod',

I'la:;raw-Hill Book Company (U.K.) Limited, 3rd Edition,
1977.
 APPEiIIDIX-A

R E SULT S IF EXP rn HlEi~r S

Table A.l Results of the test with beam of thin-rectangular

section having restraints along the top flange

Load
Deflectometer readings
in lbs Deflection x 1000 inch
Deflectometer 1 Deflectometer 2
0 0 0
25 2 3
40 6 3
60 8 10
80 18 23
100 42 52
110 62 78
120 113 130
125 130 163
130 152 186
135 183 220
 142

Table A. 2 R esul ts of the test with beam of thin-

rectangular section having restraints. along

the centroidal axis

Load in
Deflectometer reading
lbs deflection x 1DOD inch
Deflectometer 1 Deflectometer 2

0 0 0
20 4 3
40 8 7
60 17 15
80 42 39
90 68 61
100 90 81
1 10 149 138

•
 143

Table A.3 Results of the I-beam test with restraints

attached along the top flange

Load in Deflectometer reading

Ibs Deflection x 1 DOD inch
Deflectometer 1 Deflectometer 2

IJ 0 0

250 74 65

50IJ 91 77

75D 1Do 90

11J00 110 101

1250 11 8 109

1500 124 116

1750 133 127

1900 145 142

2000 159 160

2100 173 180

2200 1 95 207

2250 large .large

 144

Table A.4 Results of the I-beam test with restraints

attached along the centroidal axis

Load in Deflectometer readings

lbs Deflection x 1DOO inch
D efl ectometer,,1 Deflectometer 2

0 0 0

100 12 1

200 43 28

350 70 42

550 97 72

650 117 107

800 134 125

900 149 141

1000 166 157

1100 182 174

1250 210 201

1350 228 220

1500 262 252

1600 286 276

1700 309 298

1800 333 322

1900 357 345

2000 387 367

2100 1arge large

 APPENDIX-B

CAL CULA THIN 0 F SP RIN G ffiN STAN T

T he spring constant K is given by

K =

Where, K = sp ring co nstant.

6
G = sh ear modul us = 1 2x 10 psi

d = diameter of the rod

r- = radiusiof the spring coil

N = number of active coil s of the spring

For this particular spring,

d=O.125in.
-
r=O.8125in.

I~ = 19

6 4
12x1D xD.125
Therefore, K =
64xO.8125
:3 x19 = 4.5

Thus the spring constant is 4.5 lb/in.