STEEL CONSTRUCTION: APPLIED STABILITY

1043
__________________________________________________________________________

STEEL CONSTRUCTION:
APPLIED STABILITY

Lecture 6.6.2: Buckling of Real Structural

Elements II
OBJECTIVE/SCOPE
To extend and generalise to other instability phenomena the conclusions drawn in Lecture
6.6.1 on column buckling.
PREREQUISITES
Lecture 6.3: Elastic Instability Modes
Lecture 6.6.1: Buckling of Real Structural Elements I
RELATED LECTURES
Lecture 7.3: Local Buckling
Lectures 7.5: Columns
Lectures 7.10: Beam Columns
Lectures 8: Plates and Shells
Lectures 9: Thin-Walled Construction
SUMMARY
Plate buckling and types of buckling involving torsional deformation are considered, as is
the basic type of shell buckling, i.e. the case of an axially compressed cylinder. For each
type of buckling a description of the basic phenomena is given; the behaviour is analysed
in terms of the pre-buckling, post-buckling and collapse behaviour, and the governing
geometric parameters are identified. Comment is also briefly made on how members can
be strengthened to prevent buckling failures.

1. INTRODUCTION
The influence of imperfections, material plasticity and strain hardening on ultimate
resistance, has been reviewed in detail in the previous Lecture 6.6.1 with reference to
column flexural buckling. This is the form of member instability that has been most
studied and an almost complete understanding of the phenomenon has been achieved.

STEEL CONSTRUCTION: APPLIED STABILITY

1044
__________________________________________________________________________
Most of the conclusions drawn in the previous lecture are still valid, in general terms, for
other forms of instability. These forms are, however, characterised by different kinds of
deformations, so that the nature of the imperfections that most affect the ultimate
resistance are different to flexural buckling; to gain an understanding of the real buckling
resistance of columns, therefore, the effect of imperfections on these different forms of
instability must be analysed.
Plate buckling is first examined because it often occurs in the form of local buckling, i.e.
buckling of section-plate components; moreover, it helps to understand torsional column
buckling, where buckling occurs with a twist of the cross-section only. Column flexuraltorsional buckling is then examined; this is well named because bending and torsional
deformations are always linked together as in the lateral-torsional buckling of beams.
Buckling of shells is also considered; this very complex phenomenon is illustrated by
reference to the basic case of an axially loaded cylindrical shell.

2. BUCKLING OF PLATES
Plate buckling occurs where thin-walled sections experience compressive stresses. This
phenomenon is quite similar to column buckling; it involves, however, elements of the
member cross-section rather than displacement of the section as a whole. Compressive
stresses may arise not only from compressive axial load but also from bending of the
member, and even from patch loads (Figures 1a, 1b, and 1c). Local buckling may also
occur in plates subject to shear (Figure 1d), because shear results in compressive and
tensile principal stresses.
Cold-formed sections and thin plated sections are the most sensitive to local buckling.
The elastic buckling modes and corresponding critical stresses of compressed plates are
derived from the small deflected plate equations; their analysis has been carried out in
Lecture 6.3.
It has long been recognised that the critical buckling load of a plate is not a satisfactory
measure of the actual plate resistance. Indeed, as soon as the plate tends to buckle, out-ofplane deflections result in membrane forces due to the stretching of the mid-plane of the
plate. To understand this behaviour let us consider an initially flat rectangular plate,
having all edges either simply supported, or clamped, and loaded in uniform uniaxial
compression. Let us assume, in addition, that the aspect ratio is such that the plate will
buckle in a single half-wave mode (Figure 2). For the purpose of this analysis the plate can
be replaced by a system of strips in both orthogonal directions; the longitudinal strips are
compressed and are thus liable to buckle. Below the elastic critical plate buckling load, all
the longitudinal strips are straight because the plate remains flat; they maintain their initial
stiffness and experience equal compression stress. Once the plate buckles, the longitudinal

STEEL CONSTRUCTION: APPLIED STABILITY

1045
__________________________________________________________________________

strips close to the edge are constrained to remain straight while those away from these
edges are more prone to buckling; in other words the first ones retain their axial stiffness
while the latter lose a part of their initial stiffness.

STEEL CONSTRUCTION: APPLIED STABILITY

1046
__________________________________________________________________________

The plate buckling causes an increase in length of the transverse strips because the
longitudinal edges are restrained against free shortening of the plate in the transverse
direction; this causes tensile membrane forces in the transverse strips, that exert a
stabilising effect on the longitudinal strips (Figure 3). This explains why stable
equilibrium states can be reached by the plate beyond the elastic critical plate buckling
load, with the result that large post-buckling resistance may be possible provided the
material does not yield prematurely. This is the fundamental difference between plate
behaviour and column buckling, which is not able to exhibit such a reserve of resistance.

STEEL CONSTRUCTION: APPLIED STABILITY

1047
__________________________________________________________________________
When the plate buckles, in-plane and out-of-plane displacements interact, resulting in a
non-linear behaviour. The plate behaviour, in the large deflection regime, can only be
deduced from both the compatibility and equilibrium non-linear plate equations. It is
represented, in Figure 4, by the plot of the mean applied stress against plate lateral
deflection, and end shortening; the latter plot is bi-linear when the plate is initially
perfectly flat, and the slope represents the axial stiffness of the plate; the post-buckling
axial stiffness depends on the in-plane restraints offered by the boundary but varies
usually from 40 to 75% of the initial stiffness. The larger the restraints against in-plane
displacements of the boundary (primarily of the longitudinal edges), the larger the
stabilising effect resulting from the membrane forces, and the larger the possible postbuckling reserve of resistance.

STEEL CONSTRUCTION: APPLIED STABILITY

1048
__________________________________________________________________________
The ultimate load is finally reached when the stiffness of the plate has sufficiently
deteriorated due to material yielding. Plate buckling results, as mentioned above, in a nonuniform membrane stress distribution across the plate width with peak stresses at the
longitudinal edges (Figure 5). Yielding will, therefore, occur first at these edges and
spread rapidly until collapse is reached.

The post-buckling resistance is exhibited especially by plates having slender proportions

and which, to a large extent, behave elastically. The ultimate load, in this case, may
amount to several times the elastic critical load. For plates of low and intermediate
slenderness, plate behaviour is mainly affected by material plasticity; indeed the more
stocky the plate, the more yielding will tend to precede plate buckling with the result that
the ultimate resistance may be even lower than the elastic critical load.
Plate manufacturing and fabrication processes result in unavoidable geometric
imperfections and residual stresses. In most cases, both have an effect on the pre- and
post-buckling behaviour.
The fundamental geometric imperfection is the initial out-of-flatness, which, as would be
expected, significantly affects plate buckling. Due to lack of flatness, the out-of-plane
plate deformations increase from the onset of loading. The magnitude of out-of-flatness
influences the load-deflection plate response; however, as long as the response is elastic,
plates with any level of imperfection will approach the post-buckling behaviour of ideally
flat plates (Figure 4a). In the load-end shortening plot, the effect of out-of-flatness is to
round off the "knee" at the critical stress (Figure 4b). Not only the magnitude but also the
pattern of the initial out-of-flatness may influence the plate response; the more similar the
buckling mode is to this pattern, the more plate buckling occurs and proceeds smoothly.
On the other hand, any out-of-flatness which differs from the buckling mode tends to
delay plate buckling; however, when this occurs, it happens suddenly in a way termed
'snap-through'. Because of the random nature of the out-of-flatness pattern (unknown at
the design stage), it is usually conservatively assumed that the imperfection is close to the
first plate buckling mode.

STEEL CONSTRUCTION: APPLIED STABILITY

1049
__________________________________________________________________________
The plate residual stresses also tend to reduce the initial axial stiffness and affect the
yielding process.
Plate slenderness is the geometric parameter governing the plate ultimate resistance. The
latter is generally represented (Figure 6a) by a plot of the mean applied stress at failure
against the slenderness parameter =b/t, "b" being the plate width in the direction
perpendicular to the compression.

An elastic initially flat plate should buckle for a critical stress:

cr = k [2E/12 (1 - 2)] (1/)2

(1)

where k is the plate buckling coefficient and the Poisson ratio. Due to material
plasticity, the squash load provides a limit to plate resistance and constitutes a cut-off limit
to the elastic buckling curve. As explained above, however, the ultimate average stress of
a slender plate, i.e. a plate for which cr is lower than the yield stress fy, exceeds the elastic
critical stress as a result of the post-buckling resistance; the ultimate stress curve thus lies

STEEL CONSTRUCTION: APPLIED STABILITY

1050
__________________________________________________________________________
higher than the critical stress curve. The transition between squashing and plate buckling
occurs when cr = fy, that is for the following slenderness:
1 =

(2)

For a simply supported long plate, subject to uniform compression, the buckling
coefficient is roughly k =4; the corresponding value of 1 = 1,9
amounts to
between 56 and 46 for the usual steel grades S235 and S355. The value of the buckling
coefficient k, for other cases, depends on the plate aspect ratio, the type of loading and the
boundary conditions.
The existence of post-buckling resistance in a plate subject to shear can be physically
explained as follows: a square element, the edges of which are oriented at 45 to the plate
edges, experiences tensile stresses, 1, on two opposite edges and compressive stresses,
2, on the other two (Figure 7a); these compressive stresses can, therefore, induce plate
buckling in the form of elongated bulges oriented in the direction of the tensile stresses
(Figure 7b). The elastic critical shear stress, cr, is given by an expression similar to cr;
again cr depends on the aspect ratio and the edge support conditions. Once the plate
buckles in shear, the increase in compressive stresses is no longer possible while the initial

STEEL CONSTRUCTION: APPLIED STABILITY

1051
__________________________________________________________________________
axial stiffness of the plate, in the direction in which the tensile component acts, is still
nearly fully available. Therefore, shear load increases are basically resisted by tensile
stress increases and bulges consequently become narrower. The plate behaves as a series
of strips in the tension direction and develops a so-called tension field (Figure 7c). This
field rotates when the applied stress increases, to line up more closely with the plate
diagonal; the ultimate shear load is reached when these strips yield. Here too, the in-plane
restraints may appreciably influence the extent of the post-buckling reserve of resistance.
It can be concluded, therefore, that initial out-of-flatness, residual stresses and strain
hardening all affect the behaviour and the ultimate resistance of plates; the effect is similar
to that for column buckling, the sole but fundamental difference being that, at high
slenderness, the plate resistance curve approaches the post-buckling curve rather than the
critical buckling curve.
The above conclusions can be extended qualitatively to any portion of a plate which
experiences compressive stresses; quantitatively it can be said that the amount of postbuckling resistance may vary appreciably with the type of loading and the kind of
boundary conditions.
Similarly to column resistance curves, plate resistance curves are usually plotted as
normalised coordinates (Figure 6b): the mean ultimate stress is divided by the material
yield stress, while the normalised plate slenderness is defined, as for column buckling, in
general terms:
p

= (fy/cr)

(3)

Using Equation (1), the normalised plate slenderness is as follows:

p

= (b/t)(1,05/k)fy/E

(4)

Accordingly, p = 1 is the limit slenderness which corresponds to the transition between

squashing and plate buckling. The normalised slenderness includes the usual plate
slenderness, = b/t, but is affected, through k, by the aspect ratio of the plate, the type of
loading and the boundary conditions. To account for actual imperfections, plate resistance
curves ought be lower bounds of the available test results.

3. TORSIONAL BUCKLING OF COLUMNS

Instability due to torsional buckling can only arise in special circumstances. This buckling
type is illustrated by means of a compressed strut composed of four identical outstands,
giving a cruciform section (Figure 8); each outstand is a flat thin plate, liable to buckle
because of the compression loading. If such a plate was simply supported along the
column axis, it would buckle so that any line OA of the outstand, perpendicular to the
longitudinal edges, would remain approximately straight, though rotating about point 0.
Because the outstands are identical, they should each buckle at the same value of applied
stress. It is thus possible to find a form of buckling in which any cross-section of the
cruciform strut does not distort, but rotates about 0. The four outstands continue to meet at

STEEL CONSTRUCTION: APPLIED STABILITY

1052
__________________________________________________________________________
right angles so that the fact that they are joined rigidly along a common edge is not
significant. This form of buckling, where the strut axis remains straight but sections rotate
is termed "torsional buckling".

Because torsion is involved in such a buckling process, the elastic critical buckling stress
depends partly on the Saint-Venant torsional rigidity and on the warping rigidity. In
addition, the end torsional and warping restraints must be reflected in the numerical
factors used.
Torsional buckling can only properly occur when the shear centre and centroid of the
cross-section are coincident, i.e, only in symmetrical sections; thin-walled components
will also obviously favour this form of buckling. Because flexural buckling (usually
termed column buckling) is still possible, each form must be examined to determine which
gives the lower critical stress.
As for flexural buckling, the elastic critical torsional buckling load is not an adequate
measure of the carrying resistance. One must again allow for geometric imperfections,
residual stresses and for the effects of material plasticity and strain hardening. Regarding

STEEL CONSTRUCTION: APPLIED STABILITY

1053
__________________________________________________________________________
the initial geometric imperfections, the initial twist of the strut and the lack of flatness of
the section components are understandably the most significant. Unlike flexural buckling,
for which much information is available, the ultimate resistance associated with torsional
buckling cannot be assessed very accurately because of the lack of sufficiently
documented experiments and corresponding test results. Allowance for geometric
imperfections, residual stresses, material plasticity and strain hardening, parameters which
reduce the ultimate load below the elastic critical one, is based more on engineering
judgement than on a fully justified procedure. It is generally accepted that the procedure
used for flexural buckling can be extended to torsional buckling by assuming that the
reduction in resistance due to imperfections and plasticity are similar in both cases, when
referring to normalised coordinates. The normalised slenderness is consistently defined as
follows:
T

= (fy/cr,T)

(5)

where cr,T - is the elastic critical torsional buckling stress.

4. FLEXURAL-TORSIONAL BUCKLING
Flexural and torsional displacements are combined when the shear centre and centroid of
the section are not coincident. This results in a reduction of the critical buckling load
compared to that associated with flexural buckling. This phenomenon is particularly
important for angles and channel sections.
To illustrate this form of buckling, a channel section is considered subject to a uniaxial
compressive load at the centroid, so that the end sections experience a uniform applied
stress (Figure 9a). The section is assumed to be proportioned so that the second moment of
inertia, Iyy, about yy axis, is larger than that about zz axis; the flexural buckling about the
zz axis is thus governing (Figure 9b). As soon as the strut tends to buckle in the direction
yy, i.e. by bending about the zz axis, its deflection v(x) produces a bending moment M(x)
= Nv(x), giving rise to an associated shear, V = dM/dx = N(dv(x)/dx). Everything happens
as if the strut was subject to transverse distributed forces q=-dV(x)/dx =-N(d2v(x)/dx2),
acting in the plane yy containing the centroid G, and not in the plane zz containing the
shear centre C (Figure 9c). Therefore bending about the zz axis and the corresponding
shear induce a torque moment dMt = qzo dx, where zo is the distance between the centroid
and the shear centre. This means that purely flexural buckling in the yy plane is
impossible, because bending and torque deformations are inevitably coupled. This form of
buckling is termed "flexural-torsional buckling".
Flexural-torsional buckling is governed by three equilibrium differential equations
containing the derivatives of the three functions: displacements v and w in the yy and zz
planes and the twist . The flexural-torsional buckling load thus depends on the usual
boundary conditions for v and w at the ends (pin-ended or clamped) and on the twist and
warping restraints on .

STEEL CONSTRUCTION: APPLIED STABILITY

1054
__________________________________________________________________________

In the usual case of a pin-ended strut, which is fully free to warp, i.e.v=v"=0,w=w"=0 and
= " = 0 at the ends, the critical flexural-torsional buckling stress is as follows:
cr,FT={cr,zz + cr,T {(cr,T - cr,zz)2 + cr,zz . cr,T (zo/ro)2 ]} / {2[1 - (zo/ro)2]}

(6)

STEEL CONSTRUCTION: APPLIED STABILITY

1055
__________________________________________________________________________
where yo and zo are the coordinates of the shear centre and
. It is apparent that
this value is always lower than the flexural buckling stress, cr,zz about the zz axis and the
torsional buckling stress, cr,T. It should also be checked if it is also lower than the flexural
buckling load cr,yy about the yy axis which is the other root of the characteristic equation.
It should be noted that for a doubly symmetrical section (zo=yo=ro=0), the roots are:
cr = cr,yy = cr,zz
and that the lowest of the three values - cr,T, cr,zz and cr,yy - is the governing one.
Flexural-torsional buckling implies deformations due to both column flexural and column
torsional buckling. The associated ultimate resistance will thus be affected by all types of
imperfections, which affect these two basic phenomena.
As in the case of column torsional buckling, there is a lack of information on the loss of
flexural-torsional buckling strength due to imperfections, residual stress and material
plasticity; again, the procedure used for flexural buckling is generalised by using the same
normalised strength curves, assuming the normalised slenderness is defined as:
FT

= (fy/cr,FT)

(7)

5. LATERAL-TORSIONAL BUCKLING OF BEAMS

When a beam is subject to major axis bending, either due to end moments or, more
typically, due to transverse loads, one of the flanges, along with an adjacent portion of
web, is compressed and is, therefore, prone to buckling.
Buckling of the compression flange in the web plane is normally prevented by the web,
because of the large rigidity of the latter in its own plane; buckling of the flange in the
flange plane is, therefore, most often critical because the web provides only limited
restraint in this direction. When the web is very slender, it is likely to be distorted so that
the restraint is negligible and lateral-torsional buckling is very close to flange buckling by
bending about the weak axis of the cross-section (Figure 10a). A stocky web, however,
behaves roughly as a rigid plate element and lateral-torsional buckling causes the section
to twist (Figure 10b). Because of the rotation of the principal axes compared to their initial
direction, the resulting deformation is a combination of torsion and lateral bending.
For a perfect beam, loaded in the strong direction of bending, lateral-torsional buckling
occurs for a critical value of the maximum bending moment, or the maximum compressive
stress. This value is affected by several factors: the moment distribution along the beam
(shape of the bending moment diagram), the boundary conditions (bending, torque and
warping restraints), the level of application of the transverse loads, and the possible nonsymmetry of the cross-section. As this buckling involves torsion and weak-axis bending,
the critical bending moment will be expressed in terms of the beam length L, the torsional
and warping rigidity, GJ and EIw respectively, and the bending stiffness about the weak
axis, EIz.

STEEL CONSTRUCTION: APPLIED STABILITY

1056
__________________________________________________________________________

The elastic critical bending moment of an I or H section, for example, is as follows:

. C1

(8)

where C1 and C2 are coefficients allowing for the influence of the aforementioned factors
and zg is the distance from the shear centre to the point of application of the transverse
loads. The elastic critical lateral-torsional buckling stress is as follows:
cr,LT = Mcr,LT/ Wy

(9)

where Wy - is the elastic section modulus for bending about the strong axis.
In addition to material plasticity and residual stresses, geometric imperfections cause a
loss in resistance compared to the elastic critical load. Any imperfection which is liable to
trigger off torsion and/or lateral bending is obviously of concern. A recent statistical
evaluation of test results, carried out when preparing background documents for Eurocode
3 [1], has demonstrated that the format of the ultimate resistance curves for flexural

STEEL CONSTRUCTION: APPLIED STABILITY

1057
__________________________________________________________________________
column buckling is quite appropriate to represent the lateral-torsional buckling response,
provided the curve parameters are suitably calibrated. As for the previous forms of
buckling, the normalised slenderness for lateral-torsional buckling is defined as:
LT

= (fy/cr,LT)

(10)

6. BUCKLING OF SHELLS
Shell buckling is probably the most complex instability phenomenon. Similar to plate
buckling, it involves the cross-sectional shape rather than displacement of the section as a
whole. Compressive stresses, as before, can arise from compressive axial load, bending
and locally applied concentrated loads. In addition, however, shells can also be subject to
internal or external pressures (pipes, silos, tanks, off-shore jacket legs, etc.).
The simplest case to analyse is the axially compressed cylindrical shell (Figure 11); the
elastic critical buckling stress is as follows:
cr = [1/

] Et/r

(11)

where t is the wall thickness, and r the radius of the cylinder. This formula is well known
in the format, cr = 0,605 Et/r, valid for steel cylinders.

The load-shortening behaviour shows a drastic loss of carrying resistance as soon as the
critical buckling load is reached (Figure 12); when it buckles, the shell tends to a buckled
shape, which is in equilibrium with an external compression load usually much lower than
the critical load. This is a general characteristic of shells, whatever the type of shell and
the type of loading; unlike plates, they are not able to exhibit any post-buckling reserve of
resistance.

STEEL CONSTRUCTION: APPLIED STABILITY

1058
__________________________________________________________________________

Even very small geometric imperfections cause a premature deviation from the load displacement curve of the perfect shell usually giving a significant reduction in the load
carrying resistance (Figure 12). Elastic critical loads cannot, therefore, be attained by real
shells. The influence of imperfections on the ultimate load of shells is a very complex
problem which has been extensively researched.
According to classical theory of shell buckling, the perfect cylindrical shell can buckle
either axisymmetrically - with a succession of ring buckles - or in the form of a chessboard
(Figure 13a, b); depending on the buckling circumstances, the shell may achieve a
diamond-like post-buckling configuration. To account for imperfections, design rules
traditionally use a knock-down factor, , affecting the elastic critical shell buckling stress;
values of are derived from tests conducted on large scale models.
According to ECCS Recommendations [2], the value of this factor depends only on the
slenderness, r/t, of the shell when imperfections are kept below a specified level. An
additional partial safety factor, , is applied in the case of cylindrical shells subject to
meridional compression because of their especially unfavourable post-buckling behaviour.
The influence of the different types of imperfections on the ultimate resistance may vary
greatly depending on the type of shell and on the type of loading. A normalised resistance
curve is then defined by plotting the ratio /fy against the normalised slenderness s ( s
= (fy/cr), similar to the approach used for column and plate resistance curves (Figure
14).

STEEL CONSTRUCTION: APPLIED STABILITY

1059
__________________________________________________________________________

STEEL CONSTRUCTION: APPLIED STABILITY

1060
__________________________________________________________________________
It should be noted that as s increases, the resistance curve approaches the critical
resistance value (reduced by the knock-down factor ).

7. IMPROVING THE BUCKLING RESISTANCE

The buckling resistance of a member, or of a section component, can be enhanced in a
number of ways.
For a specified buckling form, a reduction of the slenderness ratio will result in a higher
ultimate load. This will usually be achieved by increasing the cross-sectional dimensions;
it can also be done by distributing the material differently about the centroid, while
keeping the cross-section area constant; doing this, however, can change the section and/or
member response, so that other buckling forms may become critical. In particular, a
reduction in thickness of the cross-section components, in order to better distribute the
material, often results in plate buckling governing the design.
Another way to improve the buckling resistance of a member is to provide it with better or
additional restraints so that the buckling mode is modified. The elastic critical load of a
pin-ended axially compressed column, for example, is increased by a factor 4 by providing
a simple support at mid-height, so that the column buckles in a two half sine-wave mode.
Similarly a simply supported beam, subject to bending about its major axis, is
strengthened against lateral-torsional buckling by preventing bending and/or torque
rotations at the end supports, or, more simply, by preventing the compression flange from
any lateral displacement by means of adequate bracing. The ultimate resistance of a thin
compressed plate can be appreciably improved by fitting longitudinal and possibly
transverse stiffeners; provided these are stiff enough, the plate will buckle between the
stiffeners, with a higher elastic critical stress. Stiffening of shell structures will similarly
produce an increase in resistance.
Although the design resistance is related to the ultimate stress rather than to the elastic
critical stress, the above comments can be qualitatively extended when referring to the
ultimate carrying resistance.

8. FRAME INSTABILITY
When designing columns as parts of a frame, it would be convenient to isolate the
columns from the remainder of the frame and to treat their design as separate problems.
However most columns belonging to building frames experience bending actions applied
at their ends, in addition to axial loads. These bending actions depend on the interaction
between the column and its adjacent members -beams and columns. In some cases, the
column will support the beams at failure; such situations occur when the beams are
designed plastically and collapse while the column remains stable and elastic. There are
other situations where the beams will support the column; that is especially the case when
the beams are designed elastically and exhibit an elastic behaviour up to collapse, the
latter being initiated by column instability.

STEEL CONSTRUCTION: APPLIED STABILITY

1061
__________________________________________________________________________
Mostly columns in frames will appear as elastically restrained members subject to
combined axial load and end moments. Therefore, they are termed beam-columns.
In most building frames, sway displacements are prevented by means of appropriate
bracing systems, e.g. braces in the facades, staircases, reinforced concrete central core for
utilities. Then the column ends are not likely to experience horizontal displacements.
Stability of non-sway frames reduces itself to stability of the individual columns.
Therefore there is the need for appropriate rules regarding the ultimate resistance of
elastically restrained compression members subject to additional end moments.
Sometimes the horizontal forces, due to wind and possible earthquake, have to be resisted
by bending actions in the whole frame, which exhibits horizontal displacements, usually
increasing in magnitude from base to top. Then the columns deflect according to a Sshape, termed double-curvature bending. Horizontal displacements allow the gravity loads
to develop additional bending moments, which are usually called secondary moments
because they result from gravity loads acting on the deflected frame. The wording
secondary is peculiarly not appropriate because the magnitude of the secondary bending
moments can rarely be disregarded. Checking the frame stability by considering the
stability of the individual columns appears thus more like a cooking recipe than a sound
design procedure, but it does attempt to take into account the influence of second-order
effects in the framed structure.
A full review of all these complex matters is beyond the scope of this present lecture.
They are reviewed in more detail in Lectures 7 and in some other lectures where systems
are especially considered.

9. CONCLUDING SUMMARY

The basic features of the buckling phenomena of the members which have been
examined are summarised in the following table.
The most effective ways to improve buckling resistance are to increase the
dimensions of the cross-section and/or to use adequate bracing and restraints to
modify the buckling mode.
The stability of a no-sway frame is controlled by the stability of its individual
columns.
The stability of a sway frame is controlled by the bending stiffness of the columns
and beams and the rigidity of the beam/column connections.

STEEL CONSTRUCTION: APPLIED STABILITY

1062
__________________________________________________________________________
Buckling
phenomenon

Type of
member

Loading

Stiffness
parameters

Slenderness Normalised
ratio
slenderness

Flexural

Columns

Axial
compression

EIy or EIz

L/ix or L/iy

Torsional

Columns
(open sections
with double or
point
symmetry)

Axial
compression

GJ, EI

Flexural
torsional

Columns
(open sections
without
double or
point
symmetry)

Axial
compression

GJ, EI

Beams

Major axis
bending

Lateral
torsional

EIy and/or
EIz
GJ, EI ,

EIz
Plate

Thin plate or
member
component

Compression
or shear

Shell

Cylindrical
shell

Axial
compression

b/t

r/t

10. REFERENCES
[1] Eurocode 3: "Design of Steel Structures": ENV 1993-1-1: Part 1.1: General rules and
rules for buildings, CEN, 1992.
[2] European Convention for Constructional Steelwork, Recommendations of Steel Shells,
Publication 56, ECCS, 1988.

11. ADDITIONAL READING

1. Ballio, G. and Mazzolani, F, "Theory and Design of Steel Structures", Chapman
and Hall, London, 1983.
2. Dowling, P.J., Knowles, P. and Owens, G.W., "Structural Steel Design",
Butterworths, London, 1988.
3. Galambos, T.V. (editor), "Guide to Stability Design Criteria for Metal Structures",
John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1988.
4. McGuire, W, "Steel Structures", Prentice-Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1968.
5. Picard, A. and Beaulieu, D., "Calcul des charpentes en d'acier", Institut Canadien
de la Construction en Acier, 1991.