Civil Engineering Association

The calculation of buckling loads is key in designing structural elements and often hinges on numerical methods. However, analytical solutions can serve as critical cross-references that help assess the reliability and accuracy of numerical solutions. The quest for access to closed form analytical solutions that elucidate the intrinsic fundamental and unexpected featues of numerical solutions drove the creation of Exact Solutions for Buckling of Structural Members. In researching this book, the authors gathered as many exact buckling solutions as possible, and have presented them in a concise treatment. This book condenses closed form buckling solutions of columns, beams, arches, rings, plates and shells from the vast literature into a single volume. It begins with an introduction to elastic buckling and the importance of elastic buckling load. The following chapters present coverage of flexural buckling solutions for columns under various loads, restraints, and boundary conditions; the exact flexural-torsional buckling solutions of beams; and the buckling solutions of circular arches and rings. Also included in these chapters are discussions of the effect of transverse shear deformation on the buckling load of columns and the flexural-torsional buckling of columns for thin-walled members with open profiles. The final chapters discuss the elastic buckling of plates under inplane loads and buckling solutions for cylindrical and spherical shells. With coverage of a wide range of buckling load problems, this innovative reference provides engineers and researchers benchmarks for assessing the validity, convergence, and accuracy of solutions obtained by numerical methods.