NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF A CIRCULAR ARCH BUCKLING UNDER THE SYMMETRIC PRESSURE

JAEGWI GO, YOUNGMI CHOI, AND ZHONG BO FANG Received 3 March 2005; Accepted 12 October 2005

The many interesting phenomena, such as snap-through, nonuniqueness, and stability, of a circular arch subjected to the symmetric pressure are studied. The balance of forces of an elemental length leads to a governing equation which is used to investigate stable states of the arch. With specic opening angle 2a = / 3, the sensitivities of angle and curvature at a base are surveyed for various of spring constants. The variations of angle and curvature at an edge are almost the same if the spring constant 10. Copyright 2006 Jaegwi Go et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 1. Introduction The behavior of an arch under the action of pressure is dependent on the exural rigidity of the arch, opening angle, and base conditions. Schreyer and Masur [4] accomplished an exact analysis and obtained analytical solutions for shallow arches with clamped bases. A series method was used to investigate the numerical solutions of the buckling shallow arch with clamped bases by Dickie and Broughton [1], while Pi et al. [3] analyzed the in-plane buckling of circular pin-ended and xed arches with an arbitrary cross-section under uniformly distributed normal pressure around the arch. On the other hand, Go [2] realized many interesting phenomena, such as snap-through, nonuniqueness, and stability, by considering a circular arch, which is restrained with torsional spring at the bases, under normal uniform loading. Elastic, inextensible, and thin circular arches subjected to the action of symmetric pressure, for example, gravity, are considered. The bases of the arches are restrained with torsional spring (Figure 1.1). Our main concerns are to analyze the susceptibility of the arch for various spring constants and stability of each bifurcation curve. For our purpose, the pressure-base angle and pressure-base curvature plots for the variations of angle and curvature and the pressure-base area for stability of each bifurcation curve are used. In Section 2, the method of equilibrium of elemental segment is used to formulate the governing equation. The balance of normal and shear stresses of the elemental segment
Hindawi Publishing Corporation Mathematical Problems in Engineering Volume 2006, Article ID 61806, Pages 111 DOI 10.1155/MPE/2006/61806

Numerical analysis of a buckling arch

p x g

a y

Figure 1.1. Symmetric load uniformly distributed around arch.

(Figure 2.1) leads to a nonlinear ordinary boundary value problem. Based on the fourthorder Runge-Kutta method, we use the shooting method to solve the boundary value problem in Section 3. 2. Derivation of equation The balance of forces in the normal and tangential directions and the balance of local moment are used to derive the governing equation. According to the bending theory, it leads to Tdg dS qn ds = 0, dT + Sdg + qt ds = 0, dM Sds = 0, (2.1) (2.2) (2.3)

where T , S, qn , and qt are tension, shear, normal, and tangential stresses on the surface, respectively. The g represents the local angle of inclination (Figure 2.2) and s the arc length. Moreover, we assume that the moment is proportional to local curvature, that is, M = EI dg , ds (2.4)

where EI is the exural rigidity. From (2.3) and (2.4), S = EI and from (2.1) and (2.2),
S

d2 g , ds 2
2

(2.5)

dg d2 S ds dS d2 g ds qt = ds ds 2 dg ds ds 2 dg

qn

d2 g ds ds 2 dg

(2.6)

The combination of (2.5) and (2.6) provides EI d2 g d3 g d2 g d2 g dg d4 g dg EI 3 qn 2 + EI 2 4 2 ds ds ds ds ds ds ds

3

+ qt

dg ds

= 0,

(2.7)

Jaegwi Go et al. 3
T + dT

g + dg M + dM

S + dS

qt

ds

qn

M S

Figure 2.1. An elemental length.

and through normalizing arc length and stress by s = s /R and qn = qn R3 / EI, it is obtained the nonlinear equation gssss gs gsss gss qn gss + gss gs3 + qt gs2 = 0. (2.8)

Note that, under the vertical pressure, the normalized normal and tangential stresses are written by qn = p cos g and qt = p sin g (Figure 2.2), and the (x, y )-cartesian coordinates normalized by R are related to g by xs = cos g (s), ys = sin g (s). (2.9)

Since the total angle change is resisted by an additional moment at the bases with torsional spring constants, the boundary conditions are g (a) + a EI gs (a) g (a) a + EI gs (a) The normalized forms then are given by g (0) + a gs (0) 2a = 0, g (1) a + gs (1) 2a = 0, (2.11) 1 = 0, R

1 = 0. R

(2.10)

Numerical analysis of a buckling arch

qt = p sin g g x

qn = p cos g

Figure 2.2. The strength of stresses.

where = EI / R. The = 0 and = imply xed and hinged base bucklings, respectively. 3. Numerical results and discussions In this section, the equilibrium states of arches are investigated, for each given angle a and pressure p, using numerical tools. We transform (2.8) by g (s) = g (1 s) and dropping tilde, and reduce, after dividing by gs2 and integrating, to 1 gsss + gs3 cgs qt sgs qn = 0 2 (3.1)

to remove the risk of singularity. The c is an integral constant. Equation (3.1) is shoot based on the fourth-order Runge-Kutta. The boundary conditions are g (0) a gs (0) + 2a = 0, x(0) = 0, x(1) = sin a , a g (1) + a + gs (1) + 2a = 0, y (0) = 0, y (1) = 0. (3.2)

Some methods to reduce the target boundary conditions were investigated in [2]. We pay attention to describe the behaviors of a circular arch of opening angle a = / 6 for various spring constants . Numerical results are displayed using a curve of pressurebase curvature and pressure-base angle plot for each case. Some representative solutions are depicted to show the process of collapse of the arch through snap-through. Figure 3.1 presents the variation of a base angle versus the uniform pressure p. Two types of conguration, symmetric (branches C , D, and E) and antisymmetric (branches A and B ) modes, are observed. Like the results of Go [2], the antisymmetric bifurcation curve is an ellipse. The deformed symmetric shapes between the branchs C and E are dierent. Both bases bend downward in branch E (Figure 3.3), while the shape in branch

Jaegwi Go et al. 5
A0 0.6 0.4 0.2
100 50 0.2 0.4

B 50 E Snap-through D 100 p

Figure 3.1. A0 = angle at s = 0, (0) = (1) = , a = / 6.

(a)

(b)

(c) Figure 3.2. (a) = , a = / 6, p = 30; (b) = , a = / 6, p = 10; (c) = , a = / 6, p = 60.

C bends downward at mid point. Figures 3.2 and 3.3 show the process of deformation of the arch of each branch C and E as pressure decreases. Not all equilibrium solutions, however, are stable. The stability of each branch is studied using pressure-base area. Area is dened by the dierence between the trivial circular arch and the deformed arch for each given pressure. Stable means that the area increases as pressure increases, otherwise unstable. Only the branch D is stable and the others (branches A, B , C , and E) are unstable (Figure 3.4). Figure 3.5 displays the variation of angle at s = 0 for dierent spring constants (0) = 0, (0) = 1, (0) = 10, and (0) = 100 with (1) = 0. The pressures for snap-through mode is ps 49, ps 54, ps 60, and ps 68 for each spring constant = , = 100, = 10, and = 1, which can be understood as a reasonable modelling. In similar manner, the changes of curvature at s = 1 are investigated for some kinds of spring constants (1) = 0, (1) = 1, (1) = 10, and (1) = 100 with (0) = 0 in Figure 3.6. In both cases

Numerical analysis of a buckling arch

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d) Figure 3.3. (a) = , a = / 6, p = 80; (b) = , a = / 6, p = 30; (c) = , a = / 6, p = 70; (d) = , a = / 6, p = 60.

0.15 0.125 Area 0.075 0.05 0.025

50 25

0.08 E Area 0.06 0.04 0.02 25 p 50 75 20 40 p 60 80 C

0.1

(a)
0.17 0.168 Area 0.166 0.164 0.162 20 40 p 60 80
20

(b)
0.15

D Area

0.125 0.1 0.075 0.05 0.025 20 p 40 60 A, B

(c)

(d)

Figure 3.4. (a) Branch E, = , a = / 6; (b) branch C , = , a = / 6; (c) branch D, = , a = / 6; (d) branch A, B , = , a = / 6.

Jaegwi Go et al. 7
A0 0.4 0.2

Snap-through

20
0.2 0.4

40

60

(0) = 1 (0) = 10 (0) = 100

Figure 3.5. A0 = angle at s = 0, a = / 6, (1) = 0.

C1 0.4 0.2

10
0.2 0.4

20

30

40

50

60

(0) = 1 (0) = 10 (0) = 100

Figure 3.6. C 1 = curvature at s = 1, a = / 6, (1) = 0.

(Figures 3.5 and 3.6), the changes of angle or curvature are almost the same if spring constant 10. Appendix The program les (using C ++ computer language) are attached.

Numerical analysis of a buckling arch

Table A.1. Initial data. (0) = (1)

6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6

p 100 80 60 40 20 0
10 40 20

(0)
0.4054 0.3986 0.3875 0.3715 0.348 0.306 0.258

c 67.950 016 50.373 826 32.957 667 15.752 357

1.46006 18.7281 27.4485 66.55082 70.85218 73.07093 75.206311 77.7038 80.97574 85.75932 83.2982 87.220119 88.61008 90.27676 92.05987 95.015 98.4632 103.31382 110.40713

ss (0) 20.2458 18.263 16.047 13.481 10.36 6.097 2.68

20.3 29.6 33.1 34.3 33.02 28.02 17.65

0.033 0.275 0.423 0.535 0.617 0.6565 0.6315 0.3115

0.121 0.242 0.3325 0.402 0.457 0.495 0.5145 0.51

0 20 40 60 80 86 60 40 20 0
20 40 60 80

14.4 38.3 40.87 41 39.35 36.8 32.8 27.3 20.3

Jaegwi Go et al. 9
Table A.1. Continued.

6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6

100 120

0.479 0.417

120.91787 135.0085 53.09718 40.88411 36.88867 36.7712 39.88732 50.40328

11.8 0.4 4.2 10.76 17 15.45 7.8

2.26

55 40 20 0
20 35

0.409 0.1865
0.208 0.3925 0.405 0.2675

Table A.2. Initial data. (0) 100 100 100 100 10 10 10 10 10 1 1 1 1 1 (1) 100 100 100 100 10 10 10 10 10 1 1 1 1 1 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 p 50 30 10
10

(0) 0.37535
0.049655 0.317649 0.428156

s (0)
1.04868 1.05293 1.05561 1.056715 1.05715 1.08185 1.1202 1.1379 1.1413 0.1568 1.456 1.7485 1.869 1.87

c
48.3 38.02098 36.580012 37.693106 57.67569 41.0891 37.23299 37.15 38.06 57.63635 43.1 40.0776 40.26 41.47057

ss (0) 5.345 652 15.5 16.84187 12.7 3.84 11.15 17.1 15.34905 12.4889 4.55 13.85304 17.32 13.63965 9.3

60 40 20 0
10

0.42408 0.177 079

0.206421 0.38342 0.41742

60 40 20 0
10

0.413 997 0.114 797

0.177703 0.298203 0.299203

10

Numerical analysis of a buckling arch

Table A.3. Initial data.

(0) (1) 100 100 100 100 100 10 10 10 10 10 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6

p 60 50 40 30 20 60 50 40 30 20 59.2 50 40 30 20

(0) 0.325 342 0.212 343 0.080 343

0.048356 0.172655

s (0)
1.04918 1.05031 1.05163 1.052917 1.05416 1.0673 1.0787 1.0917 1.10465 1.1168 1.278 1.388 1.509 1.619 1.722

c
61 55.3 51.11172 47.54762 43.85795 61 55.41751 51.26867 47.7352 44.0552 61.126 56.5 52.7 49.3855 45.6494

ss (0) 8.89033 12.4861 15.6 17.5 18.2 9.09989 12.7 15.72 17.7 18.29 10.78 14.309 16.9988 18.21 18.15

s (1)
0.416293

0.047 348 0.388 698 0.484 369 0.248 203

0.39386

0.322 574 0.208 574 0.078 574

0.050927 0.172426

0.070 238 0.398 303 0.500 319 0.245 279

0.181222

0.292 796 0.182 796 0.061 796

0.048204 0.151204

0.252 329 0.524 258 0.511 835 0.106 911

Acknowledgment This work was supported by the Research Fund of KOSEF-R14-2003-019-01001. References
[1] J. F. Dickie and P. Broughton, Stability criteria for shallow arches, Journal of the Engineering Mechanics Division 97 (1971), no. 3, 951965. [2] J. Go, Buckling arch under normal pressure, Ph.D. thesis, Michigan State University, Michigan, 2004. [3] Y.-L. Pi, M. A. Bradford, and B. Uy, In-plane stability of arches, International Journal of Solids and Structures 39 (2002), no. 1, 105125.

Jaegwi Go et al.

11

[4] H. L. Schreyer and E. F. Masur, Buckling of shallow arches, Journal of Engineering Mechanics 92 (1966), no. 4, 119. Jaegwi Go: Department of Mathematics, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 500-757, South Korea E-mail addresses: gojaegwi@msu.edu; jggo@chonnam.ac.kr; jaegwigo@hanmail.net Youngmi Choi: Department of Mathematics, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 500-757, South Korea E-mail address: ymchoi93@hanmail.net Zhong Bo Fang: Department of Mathematics, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 500-757, South Korea E-mail address: fangzb7777@hotmail.com