Post-Buckling Behaviour of a Steel Column

Author: Yi Xiang Chiew

Supervisor : Prof. Gert van der Heijden
MSc in Civil Engineering with Integrated Design Project

UCL Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, Gower St, London ,WC1E 6BT

1.0 Introduction 4.0 Methods Adopted and Results

Geometrical Imperfection
The primary concern in compression elements in many engineering structures such as aircrafts or A non-linear buckling analysis was carried out in ABAQUS to determine the non-linear buckling
steel structures is the instability issue which will result to loss in element stiffness and strength. load of a 15m 256 x 256 x 167 column and to observe its geometrical non-linearity under various
This phenomenon is also known as buckling. In structural engineering, structural members are initial geometrical imperfection and is done by adding the keyword *IMPERFECTION in the
generally composed of relatively thin elements for efficiency purposes. Although favourable in script.
terms of overall structural efficiency, the slender nature of these thin elements results in
susceptibility to instabilities under compression which must be considered in design. Studies have Non-Linear Buckling load against Imperfection
2000

been carried out to identify the post-buckling behaviour and the affects of post-buckling 1800

Non-Linear Buckling Load / kN

behaviour. 1600
1400
1200
1000

2.0 Objective 800

600
400
The main objective of this research to is to identify the causes of buckling and the effects of post- 200

buckling of a UC 256x256x167 steel column. 0

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
Geometry Imperfection / mm

Structural steel elements are typically manufactured by rolling and are welded to form desired Figure 2: Non-linear buckling load under series of geometrical imperfection
cross-sections. The nature of manufacturing steel sections will have the following affects to post-
L/25 (600mm) Imperfection L/400 (37.5 mm) Imperfection
buckling. 1.2 1.2

Load Proportionality factor (LPF)

Load Proportionality Factor (LPF) / P/Pe
1 1

1. Geometrical Imperfections 0.8

0.8
2. Residual Stress

P/Pe
0.6 0.6

ABAQUS
In this research, only geometrical imperfections were considered as part of the manufacturing 0.4 ABAQUS 0.4
Elastic
affects on post-buckling behaviour. In addition, boundary conditions and column slenderness 0.2
Elastic
Buckling 0.2 Buckling
Eurocode 3
Eurocode 3
were also parameters which have been used to study the effects of post-buckling behaviour of the 0
0

steel column. 0 500 1000

Deflection /mm
1500 2000
0 200 400 600 800
Deflection/ mm
1000 1200 1400 1600

Figures 3(a): Load-deflection diagram of column with Figures 3(g): Load-deflection diagram of column with
3.0 Fundamentals of Stability L/25 imperfection L/400 imperfection

The Slenderness Ratio

A series of column length ranging from 15m to 2m is analysed for its post-buckling behaviour
under a fixed-pinned boundary condition with the presence of L/50 and L/100 imperfection.

60000 2000
Linear Buckling
1800
50000 Imperfection, L/50

Global Buckling Region

1600

Lateral Displacement / mm

Local Buckling Region

Imperfection,
L/100 1400
40000
Buckling Load / kN

1200

30000 1000

800
20000
600
L/50
Figure 1:Strut model demonstrating fundamentals of stability 10000
400
L/100
200

The post-buckling behavior of a column can be demonstrated in a spring bar model by inducing 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5

an external moment, Mo on the base of the support to idealise any eccentric loading. Equilibrium Dimensionless Slenderness Slenderness Ratio / 𝜆 ̅

by nature, which is the system’s stability can be examined by disturbing the already deformed Figure 3: Buckling loads in series of slenderness ratio Figure 4: Buckling loads in series of slenderness ratio

system by additional small rotation of θ* which can be seen in Figure 2.5.

With respect to figure 1.5, by taking moments about point A, the equilibrium equation of the
disturbed geometry can be achieved as follows:

∑MA = 0 = PL sin (θ + θ *) + Mo - k ( θ+ θ*) (2.1)

𝑀𝑜
Rearranging eq 2.1 and taking θo = , the equation below can be obtained
𝑘 Figure 5: Local Buckling of a 2m column Figure 6: Global Buckling of a 15m column

𝑃𝐿 𝜃 + 𝜃 ∗ − 𝜃𝑜
= (2.2) Column with intermediate restraints
𝑘 𝑠𝑖𝑛 (𝜃 + 𝜃 ∗ )
An intermediate pinned restraint is placed mid-point of the column length to analyse the
geometrical non-linearity of the column.
Through trigonometry, sin ( θ + θ* ) = sin θ cos θ* + cos θ sin θ* and for small values of θ* it is
taken as cos θ* ≈ 1 and sin θ* ≈ θ* establishing the following equation Column Restraints Linear Buckling Load Max Load Proportionality Non-Linear Buckling Max Lateral
/ kN Factor (LPF) Load / kN Displacement / mm

𝑃𝐿 𝜃 + 𝜃 ∗ − 𝜃𝑜
= (2.3) No Restraint 1800 0.8 1440 1700
𝑘 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝜃 + 𝜃 ∗ 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝜃
Intermediate Restraint 7200 0.52 3744 450

𝑃𝐿 𝑃𝐿
Equation 1.8 can be arranged to the following form: sinθ - θ + θo + θ* ( cos θ -1 ) = 0. Given
𝑘 𝑘
𝑃𝐿
that sin θ - θ + θo = 0 obtained through taking moments about point A and θ* ≠ 0, equation 2.3
𝑘
can be written as

𝑃𝐿
cos θ - 1 = 0 (2.4)
𝑘

Through the derivation of equation 2.4, it provides the following indication Figure 7: Global Buckling of a 15m column with intermediate restraints

Equilibrium Status Description 5.0 Conclusion and Further Works

1
cos θ < Equilibrium is stable - the bar will return to its original position when load is removed ; energy must
𝑃𝐿/𝑘
be added. • Buckling Load decreases with an increase in initial geometrical imperfection.
1
• Eurocode 3 does not accurately predict buckling load for huge geometrical imperfection.
cos θ = Equilibrium is neutral – no force is required to move bar a small rotation 𝜃*
𝑃𝐿/𝑘 • Column start to have global buckling mode with slenderness ratio of 𝜆ҧ > 0.3
1
Equilibrium is unstable, the configuration will snap from an unstable to stable shape ; release of
• The presence of intermediate restraint will increase linear buckling load by approximately 4
cos θ >
𝑃𝐿/𝑘
energy folds for linear buckling load and triple for non-linear buckling loads.
• A physical experiment conducted to compare with computational results and to consider
residual stresses during analysis.
References

[1] Structural Stability of Steel: Concepts and Applications for Structural Engineers ,Theodore V. Galambos Andrea E. Surovek Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Inc
[2] Eurocode 3.