Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 87108

www.elsevier.com/locate/tws
Buckling of thin plates and members and
early work on rectangular tubes
J. Rhodes
*
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, 75 Montrose Street,
Glasgow G1 1XJ, UK
Abstract
A brief examination of some of the research on the post-buckling elastic and plastic behav-
iour of plates and plate structures is outlined. This eld is so wide ranging that only a very
supercial examination of the early research has been carried out, and the writer has concen-
trated on some specic aspects of the general eld of study. A very limited examination of
some of the early research on rectangular cross-section tubes is also given. 2002 Published
by Elsevier Science Ltd.
Keywords: Plates; Tubes; Struts; Compression; Local buckling; Post-buckling behaviour; Large deec-
tions; Effective width; Elastic; Plastic
1. Introduction
When Euler produced the rst paper on the buckling of columns in 1744 this
constituted, to quote Salvadori [1], a solution in search of a topic since with the
materials and structures current at that time nothing buckled. Indeed, for quite some
time thereafter the problem of buckling was theoretical pie-in-the-sky. This did not
remain the case forever, and nowadays knowledge of buckling and its effects is a
basic requirement for engineers.
In the case of plate structures probably the rst references to buckling arose during
the mid 19th century. Walker [2] told of a series of tests carried out in the laboratories
of University College London on box beams of a variety of tubular type cross-
* Tel.: +44-141-548-2314; fax: +44-141-552-5105.
E-mail address: j.rhodes@mecheng.strath.ac.uk (J. Rhodes).
0263-8231/02/$ - see front matter 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.
PII: S0263- 8231( 01) 00054- 4
88 J. Rhodes / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 87108
sections in connection with a projected suspension railway bridge across the Menai
Straits by Robert Stephenson. The tests showed that in a number of cases failure
was due to the phenomenon now known as local buckling.
The rst theoretical examination of plate buckling was by Bryan [3], who obtained
a solution to the problem of a simply supported plate under uniform compression
in 1891. Since then numerous researchers have investigated local instability in plates
under a wide variety of loading and boundary conditions using many different
methods of analysis. There has been a number of excellent textbooks that have
described the main results of these investigations, for example Refs. [4,5], and the
reader is referred to these for a general study of plate instability. In this paper atten-
tion will be focused mainly on the effects of buckling on subsequent plate behaviour.
2. Post-buckling behaviour of plates and sections
2.1. Plate behaviour at and after buckling
When a compressed plate buckles it develops out-of-plane ripples, or buckles,
along its length. This behaviour is illustrated in Fig. 1 for a thin-walled tubular
section in which local buckling is present in all of the plate elements. In the elastic
range the buckled portions of the plate shed load, and become ineffective in resisting
further loading, while in the portions of the plate close to supports the out-of-plane
buckling is diminished, and these parts have post-buckling reserves of strength and
Fig. 1. Locally buckled thin-walled section.
89 J. Rhodes / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 87108
Fig. 2. Loadend displacement path.
stiffness. The plate as a whole sustains increases in load after buckling, but the axial
stiffness reduces. This effect is demonstrated in Fig. 2, where point A is the buckling
point. For a plate without imperfections the post-buckling axial stiffness drops
immediately upon buckling, and thereafter reduces still further as loading increases.
Also, because of the highly redistributed stress system the maximum stress grows
at an increased rate after buckling, ensuring earlier failure than if the plate had
remained unbuckled.
As the load increases the stresses also increase. The consequences of this are
inevitably detrimental to the plate continuing to full its function, but the way in
which the plate fails depends very much on the material from which the plate is
made. Fibrous composites, for example, have a wide variety of failure possibilities.
In this paper such possibilities will be disregarded, and research into ductile material
only will be considered.
2.2. Von Karman large deection equations
The post-buckling behaviour of individual thin plates is governed by two simul-
taneous non-linear differential equations originally set up by von Karman [6] and
modied some time later by Marguerre [7] to take account of the presence of initial
imperfections. These equations may be written as follows:

4
F
x
4
2

4
F
x
2
y
2

4
F
y
4
E

2
w
xy

2
w
x
2

2
w
y
2

2
w
0
xy

2
w
0
x
2

2
w
0
y
2

(1)
and
90 J. Rhodes / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 87108

4
w
x
4
2

4
w
x
2
y
2

4
w
y
4

q
D

t
D

2
F
y
2

2
(w w
0
)
x
2
2

2
F
xy
2

2
(w w
0
)
xy
(2)

2
F
x
2

2
(w w
0
)
y
2

,
where F is a stress function describing the membrane stress variation in the plate,
w is the out-of-plane deection at any point on the plate, w
0
is the initial deection
(or imperfection) system in the plate, q species the lateral load on the plate, D is
the plate exural rigidity factor, and x and y are the plate coordinates.
The rst of these equations, sometimes called the Compatibility Equation,
ensures that in an elastic plate the in-plane and out-of-plane displacements are com-
patible. The second equation is based on equilibrium principles, and is sometimes
termed the Equilibrium Equation. Exact solution of these equations is only possible
for the simplest loading and support conditions, and in the earliest days of plate
post-buckling analysis recourse was made to empirical equations and to signicantly
simplied analysis to examine plate behaviour.
2.3. Empirical equations
Early research into the post-buckling behaviour of thin plates was carried out
largely in the aircraft industry. In 1930, a large series of compression tests on plates
of various materials and having a wide variation in plate width was carried out by
Schuman and Back [8]. The plates were simply supported on all edges, and the tests
indicated that, for plates wide enough to buckle locally before failure, the ultimate
load that could be carried did not increase in proportion to the width. Indeed, beyond
a certain width the ultimate load was insensitive to variation in actual width.
Over the next few years a number of theoretical investigations were carried out
to examine this phenomenon, and in 1932 the rst effective width expression was
developed by von Karman et al. [9]. This expression states that for a plate of actual
width b, an effective width b
e
can be used in the evaluation of the load-carrying
capacity. Von Karmans effective width expression can be written in terms of the
critical stress s
CR
and yield stress s
Y
as follows:
b
e
b

s
CR
s
Y
, (3)
where
s
CR

Kp
2
Et
2
12(1n
2
)b
2
. (4)
In the case of a simply supported plate, the buckling coefcient K = 4. For a steel
plate with modulus of elasticity E = 205 N/mm
2
, Poissons ratio n = 0.3 and yield
stress s
Y
= 280 N/mm
2
, the effective width at failure is 51.4t where t is the plate
thickness regardless of the plate actual width.
It should be mentioned that in the evaluation of the effective width expression it
91 J. Rhodes / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 87108
was ensured that the buckle half wavelength in the plate assumed a value which
would produce the minimum effective width.
Von Karmans effective width expression was found to be conservative and
reasonably accurate for thin plates for which the critical stress is very much less
than the yield stress. In the case of plates in which the critical stress and yield stress
are similar there is a great deal of scatter, imperfections cause substantial reduction
in the load capacity and Eq. (1) is non-conservative. To overcome this, Winter [10]
later modied von Karmans equation to:
b
e
b

s
CR
s
E

10.25

s
CR
s
E

. (5)
The second term within the brackets modies von Karmans equation mainly at the
point where the yield stress s
Y
and applied edge stress s
E
are similar. This expression
was used in the AISI specication for cold-formed steel members [11] until it was
modied again (the term 0.25 was changed to 0.218 or 0.22 in some design codes),
and in its latest form is probably the best known and most widely used expression
from which plate post-buckling strength can be determined. This equation is used
in many national design specications and in international specications such as
Eurocode 3 [12]. In the determination of the compressive capacity of a cross-section
the effective widths for all plate elements of the cross-section are computed at the
yield condition and then summed to evaluate the total effective area of the section.
This is then multiplied by the yield stress to provide a value for the squash load of
a strut taking local buckling into account.
In the application of this approach each plate element is considered separately,
although some design codes take some account of interaction between elements via
the critical stress. Such an approach is particularly useful and applicable in dealing
with rectangular tubular members. However, in the 1940s and for some time later,
an alternative method of approach, based largely on testing, was developed, largely
for open sections. A number of investigators, e.g., Heimerl [13], Schuette [14] and
Chilver [15], derived empirical equations governing the load capacity of different
short strut sections, s
max
. Some of these are as follows.
Heimerl [13]:
s
max
s
Y
0.769

s
CR
s
Y

0.2
for Z and C sections (6)
s
max
s
Y
0.794

s
CR
s
Y

0.2
for H sections (7)
Schuette [14]:
s
max
s
Y
0.8

s
CR
s
Y

0.25
for Z, C and H sections (8)
92 J. Rhodes / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 87108
Chilver [15]:
s
max
s
Y
0.863

s
CR
s
Y

1/3
for aluminium channels (9)
s
max
s
Y
0.736

s
CR
s
Y

1/3
for steel channels (10)
The fact that all of these expressions have factors less than unity signies that, for
members in which yield and local buckling theoretically occurred simultaneously,
the experimental results were less than the theoretical buckling, or yield, load due
to imperfections.
It is interesting to note that Eqs. (4)(8), empirically derived for sections, have
smaller indices than 0.5, derived for individual plate elements. Fig. 3 shows a com-
parison of the plate effectiveness (i.e., either effective width/full width or
maximum stress/yield stress) given by each equation. As may be observed, the values
given by Eq. (5) (i.e., the effective width curve) are less than those given by the
curves based on complete section strength. This could perhaps be taken to suggest
that the curve from Eq. (5) is rather conservative. This is not borne out by Fig. 4,
however, which plots a comparison with the effective width/full width ratio for the
tests that had originally been used to establish this effective width equation. Note
that in Fig. 4 the abscissa is the square root of that in Fig. 3.
The main reason why the effective width curve for individual elements gives lower
values than an effectiveness curve derived on the basis of a complete section is the fact
that in a section some elements are participating fully in buckling while others are not.
In a cross-section some elements initiate buckling, while other elements restrain
the buckling elements. The elements which initiate buckling lose effectiveness read-
Fig. 3. Variation of effectiveness with ratio of yield stress to buckling stress.
93 J. Rhodes / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 87108
Fig. 4. Comparison of Winters effective width expression with experiments.
ily, while the restraining elements remain highly effective until the compression
reaches a stage at which these elements would buckle naturally. This is illustrated
in Fig. 5, from Ref. [16]. In the box section under examination the thinner walls
buckle rst, with high restraint from the thicker elements which have much lower
deections than the thin elements initially, and the axial stiffness of the box is only
reduced to about 8085% of its initial value due to buckling. When the end displace-
ment reaches the value at which the thicker elements would naturally buckle as
simply supported elements, then these begin to participate fully in the buckling of
the section and the axial stiffness drops sharply to well under half of its original
value. If the box section had been of equal thickness, equal width walls, then under
uniform compression all walls would have buckled simultaneously, and there would
have been an immediate drop of stiffness to just over 40% of the initial value.
The effective width approach as used in design codes such as the AISI code [11]
cater for this differential behaviour of different elements in a cross-section, as each
element is analysed individually, while the complete section approach cannot take
the individual variances in sections into account unless different formulae are used
for different sections. It appears that the complete section approach, which has taken
second place to the effective width method, is set to make a comeback, and there
has been talk, particularly in the USA, of introducing such an approach into design
codes. This would be a backward step in the writers opinion.
2.4. Elastic plate analysis
Just after von Karman produced the rst effective width equation, Cox [17] perfor-
med an approximate energy analysis of plate post-buckling behaviour. Coxs
approach considered that the membrane strain in the loaded plate was constant in
the direction of load. The approximations effectively lead to neglect of the effects
of shearing stresses in a plate and the method postulated by Cox became known to
94 J. Rhodes / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 87108
Fig. 5. Buckling of a box section with sides of unequal thickness.
later researchers as the lower bound method, as the plate post-buckling stiffness
was generally underestimated due to the neglect of some of the strain energy. This
method is not a bound of any kind, but provides a simple approach to the approximate
analysis of plate post-buckling behaviour. After this early pioneering work Cox went
on to produce extremely important theoretical ndings in plate post-buckling research
including the explanation of the reason for snap changes in buckle mode, etc.
In the years immediately following Coxs rst approximate analysis a number of
researchers produced variations on this approach until the rst rigorous solution of
the plate post-buckling problem was carried out by Marguerre in 1937 [18]. Marguer-
res approach was to postulate an approximate deected form for the plate, determine
the corresponding stress function by solving the compatibility equation (1), and
employ the Principle of Minimum Potential Energy, rather than the equilibrium equ-
ation, to furnish the nal solution. Researchers in later years very often used a similar
type of approach, i.e., combining an exact solution of the compatibility equation
with either evaluation and minimisation of the potential energy, or an approximate
solution (for example, using Galerkins method) of the equilibrium equation.
With the development of rigorous solutions to plate problems came the recognition
of the importance of boundary conditions. While deection and edge slope conditions
95 J. Rhodes / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 87108
were quite obvious and were well appreciated because of their applicability in the
examination of initial buckling, rigorous examinations of post-buckling behaviour
required also a knowledge of the in-plane loading and deformation conditions. These
are highly dependent on the type of construction under consideration. In many bridge,
ship and aeroplane structures, where a multiplicity of plates are aligned in much the
same plane, the in-plane displacements of adjacent plates at their junctions is such
that displacements normal to the plate edge are either zero or constant along the
plate. Perhaps the most widely applicable condition here is that the plate edges can
move outward or inward, but must remain straight. In light structural members, where
each plate element is oriented at an angle to the adjacent element, any tendency for
the edge of a plate element to move in-plane is generally not resisted adequately by
the adjacent element and so waving of the edges of such elements is probable in the
post-buckling range. A detailed examination of the boundary conditions applicable to
plate elements is given by Benthem [19].
With regard to out-of-plane displacement conditions, situations in which the plate
edges are held straight in-plane also tend to induce conditions approaching simple
support, or fully xed, conditions (e.g., for bridge, plate and ship type plates) while
plate elements of thin-walled structural sections in general have some intermediate
degree of restraint on rotation of the unloaded edges.
In the years immediately following the Second World War a number of investi-
gators improved the knowledge of plate post-buckling behaviour. Among notable
research presentations Levy produced the rst exact solution, in series form, to
von Karmans equations [20]. Hemp [21] examined simply supported and xed edge
plates under uniform compression. Cox [22] investigated in depth the effects of in-
plane edge on plate behaviour, and obtained a solution to the problem of sudden
snap transition from one buckled wavelength to another, a phenomenon that had
previously been observed experimentally. Hu et al. [23] and Coan [24] studied the
effects of imperfections. Yamaki produced perhaps the most comprehensive analysis
up to that date in 1959 [25,26], examining plates with combinations of simply sup-
ported and fully xed boundary conditions, with unloaded edges either free to wave
in-plane or constrained in-plane.
An investigation by Stein [27] in 1951 is worthy of special mention. Stein used
the perturbation approach in which the solution is obtained in terms of the power
series expansion of a perturbation parameter. The parameter used by Stein was:
a
P
P
CR
1
w
0
w
, (11)
where P is the axial load on the plate and P
CR
the critical load to cause local buckling.
A complete picture of the plate behaviour could be derived in terms of a power
series of this parameter. The rst two terms of this power series could effectively
detail the plate post-buckling behaviour well into the far post-buckling range. Essen-
tially this meant that, by obtaining analytical solutions at two specic points, one of
which could be the buckling point, and utilising the pertubation approach, a picture
of the complete post-buckling range of behaviour of identical plates with any magni-
tude of imperfection could be produced.
96 J. Rhodes / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 87108
Walker used this approach in 1969 [28] to obtain explicit solutions for square
simply supported plates. The results were used in the 1975 edition of the UK speci-
cation for the design of cold-formed steel specimens. Williams and Walker [29]
extended this study to deal with a wide variety of plate geometries and boundary
conditions, and tables of coefcients obtained from a nite difference analysis were
given from which the reader could analyse the plate of his choice.
It is only a short step to go from this position to tting expressions to the coef-
cients so that, by solving simple equations, the coefcients governing rectangular
plates of arbitrary buckle half wavelength and arbitrary boundary restraint conditions
can be determined. In Ref. [30] slightly modied forms of explicit expression,
obtained on the basis of a Marguerre type analysis allied to the perturbation tech-
nique, are presented.
The explicit expressions are in the following forms:

e
e
CR

P
P
CR

(C
1
1)a C
2
a
2
, (12)

s
m
s
CR

P
P
CR

(C
3
1)a C
4
a
2
(13)
and

w
t

w
0
t

2
C
5
a C
6
a
2
, (14)
with a as dened in Eq. (11) and s
CR
as dened in Eq. (4), e as the average strain
in the x (loading) direction and e
CR
the critical value at local buckling.
Expressions for the coefcients C
1
to C
6
for plates with varying buckle half wave-
lengths and rotational restraints on the unloaded edges are given in Appendix A.
The rotational restraint coefcient, R, has a value such that
R
Mb
qD
, (15)
where M is the moment per unit length opposing rotation of a plate unloaded edges,
q is the rotation of the unloaded edges, b is the plate width and D the plate exural
rigidity factor. These formulae gave a fairly simple yet accurate representation of
the behaviour of plates with any buckle half wavelength, any magnitude of initial
imperfection and any degree of restraint on edge rotation within the limits of plate
large deection theory. The slight modications that were incorporated into the
explicit expressions were made to eliminate the possibility of ill conditioning affect-
ing the postulated behaviour in the far post-buckling range, and these equations give
results in close agreement with existing theory in comparable cases. Loadout-of-
plane deection curves and loadcompression curves for simply supported square
plates are shown for illustration in Figs. 6 and 7.
Fig. 8 shows, in the case of perfect plates for clarity, the variation of load with
axial compression into the far post-buckling range for plates of a variety of buckle half
97 J. Rhodes / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 87108
Fig. 6. Loadout-of-plane deection curves for square plates.
Fig. 7. Loadend displacement curves for square plates.
98 J. Rhodes / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 87108
Fig. 8. Loadcompression behaviour in the far post-buckling range.
wavelengths. From this gure it is obvious that as the compressive strain increases the
buckle half wavelength for minimum load decreases, although not by as much as the
von Karman expression suggests. The von Karman effective width expression is shown
here, and it can be seen to be a little more conservative than the lowest of the perturbation
curves, but is fairly close to the lower envelope of these curves.
In recent years elastic plate post-buckling analysis has been extended substantially
by the computer, by virtue of nite element and nite strip approaches. There have
many of these approaches presented in journals and conferences in recent years, and
some sample references are Refs. [3135].
3. Elasto-plastic analysis
Investigators who have studied the elastic post-buckling behaviour of plates and plate
structures have often suggested that failure occurs more or less coincidentally with rst
membrane yield in compression. This hypothesis has held up over the years mainly
because of two facts, namely (1) it is simple and (2) it accurately portrays the situation.
However, although the failure load can be accurately obtained in many cases by this
hypothesis, the deformation behaviour of plates and plate structures at and after failure
cannot be evaluated accurately for ductile materials by elastic theory. Because of this,
in any case in which the failure and post-failure behaviour of a structure are required,
then generally plastic behaviour must be taken into consideration.
In the design codes for cold-formed steel sections it was assumed for many years
that the ultimate load that could be carried by light gauge members was that which
caused rst yield to occur, and rst yield was taken as the failure criterion for cold-
99 J. Rhodes / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 87108
formed beams. In the writers Ph.D. research [36] he observed that tensile yield
could be accommodated quite safely so long as the compressive stresses were elastic.
This has now come to be recognised, and design taking account of tensile yield is
allowed in several light-gauge steel design codes. The situation where compressive
yield occurs in a thin-walled member is much more complicated, however.
Probably the rst elasto-plastic plate post-buckling analysis was carried out by
Mayers and Budiansky [37] in 1955. The accuracy of their method of approach
depended upon the accuracy with which they could postulate expressions for three
different displacements simultaneously, and this prevented them from determining a
condition in which the applied load reached a maximum value. The writers therefore
considered that collapse would have occurred when the unit shortening, or average
edge strain, attained a value of 1%, and took the load at this point as the collapse
load. The loads so evaluated were greater than those obtained in experiments.
A substantial amount of research into elasto-plastic plate behaviour was carried
out in the 1960s at Cambridge University, e.g., Refs. [38,39]. Perhaps the major
work here was that of Graves Smith, who examined the interaction of local and
column buckling in tubular sections in a landmark paper which also used a rather
rigorous plasticity analysis [40]. This paper will be discussed further at a later stage,
and was the forerunner of numerous papers in the 1970s on elasto-plastic plate behav-
iour, for example by Moxham [41], Frieze et al. [42], Rogers and Dwight [43], Little
[44] and Criseld [45] to mention only a few. Most of the work was highly computer-
orientated, using nite difference and nite element approaches.
There were a number of attempts made to obtain simplied analysis of plate elasto-
plastic behaviour. One of these, due to the writer [46], will be briey detailed here.
It had been found by Botman and Besselling in the 1950s [47] that derivation of an
effective width for plates using elastic analysis gave good predictions of failure when
applied to plates with non-linear behaviour, e.g., aluminium. It was therefore interest-
ing to investigate whether effective widths determined in terms of strains or plate
shortening using elastic analysis and then using these together with the elasto-plastic
stress strain law would give a realistic assessment of the behaviour. As it happens,
such an approach gives an extremely accurate assessment of the actual behaviour.
It was found that the simple approach gave results in very good agreement with
computer predictions and/or experimental ndings for a wide variety of plate con-
ditions. Figs. 911 show comparisons of the results of the simple analysis and those
of elasto-plastic computer analysis or experimental ndings as appropriate. Fig. 9
shows results of the simple approach compared with those of Frieze and Dowling
for simply supported plates with the unloaded edges constrained to remain straight.
The agreement is excellent. In Fig. 10 the simple approach predictions are compared
with the experimental results of Moxham, again showing excellent agreement. It is
noteworthy that the approximate results seem to be equally good for cases in which
the theoretical buckling strain is greater than the yield strain as it is for cases when
initial buckling is elastic. This suggests that elastic buckling analysis can be used
in the post-yield range for plates, with strains substituted for stresses. It is, of course,
true that for purely elastic plates the buckling strain is independent of the modulus
100 J. Rhodes / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 87108
Fig. 9. Comparison of approximate elasto-plastic analysis with results of Frieze et al.
Fig. 10. Comparison of approximate elasto-plastic analysis with experiments.
of elasticity, but theories which do not presume linear elasticity of the material do
not result in the same simple nding. This result is therefore most interesting.
101 J. Rhodes / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 87108
Fig. 11. Comparison of approximate elasto-plastic analysis with experiments on outstand elements.
4. Brief notes on research on tubular members
The walls of tubular members of rectangular cross-section can be subject to local
buckling, as we have already considered, and there has been an extremely large
amount of research expended on the local buckling behaviour of such members and
the interaction of local buckling and other types of buckling. It is not within the
scope of this paper to consider any of the research on various aspects of tubular
sections other than that directly related to the local buckling problem, and even here
only a very small fraction of the work carried out is mentioned.
Some early research on the effects of local buckling in box section members is
attributable to Bijlaard and Fisher [48,49], who examined the interaction of local
and overall buckling in a variety of column sections including two aluminium alloy
box sections of a wide range of slenderness ratios. The box sections were of such
cross-sectional dimensions that for one of these the local buckling stress was in the
elastic domain while for the other the local buckling stress was in the elastic domain.
The authors analytical approach gave good agreement with the experimentally
obtained load capacities. Since this time there has been a large number of research
papers written on compressed rectangular box sections, for example by Jombock and
Clark [50], Graves Smith [40,51], Svenson and Croll [52], Skaloud and Naprstek
[53], Braham et al. [54] among many others. There have also been a number of
research projects concerned with box sections fabricated from plain channels, e.g.,
Ref. [55], and lipped channels [56].
As mentioned previously, the work by Graves Smith made an enormous contri-
bution, as this not only advanced knowledge of box section interaction behaviour,
102 J. Rhodes / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 87108
but was also gave one of the earliest rigorous plastic analyses. It is perhaps worthy
of note that some 12 years after his original work on steel and aluminium box sec-
tions Graves Smith, with Sridharan [57], examined much more exible box sections,
made from rubber in fact, and found that these failed elastically due to crinkly
buckling of the corners. Such crinkly buckling is not unlike that which often
occurs in the plastic range for metallic sections, and which has been the subject of
substantial investigation in plastic mechanism analysis.
Substantial research has also gone into the study of bending behaviour of box
sections, e.g., Refs. [58,59], and a variety of other loading conditions, e.g., Ref. [60].
Design specications covering tubular members are available throughout the world,
and research on tubular sections in materials such as stainless steel, e.g., Ref. [61],
or tubular sections lled with various materials such as concrete [62], wood or polyu-
rethene foam [63] has been widely reported.
There are now a number of centres throughout the world that have a high standard
of expertise in research into the behaviour of tubular members, for example Monash
University and the University of Sydney in Australia, the University of Liege in Belgium,
Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, IIT Delhi in India and the University
of Toronto in Canada, to name but a few. The quantity of steelwork that is now used
in producing tubular members is in many countries a large proportion of all the steel
produced, and the research intensity is such that there has been a series of International
Conferences held approximately bi-annually since before the mid 1980s, partly spon-
sored by CIDECT (International Committee for the Development and Study of Tubular
Structures) and IIW (International Institute of Welding), Subcommission XV-E. These
have taken place at various locations throughout the world, with the latest being the 9th
International Symposium on Tubular Structures held in Germany, April 2001.
5. Plastic mechanism analysis
The growth in the use of plastic mechanism analysis to examine failure and post-
failure behaviour of thin-walled members has been substantial over the past three
decades or so. In 1960 Pugsley and Macaulay [64] and Alexander [65] examined
cylindrical columns using such mechanisms, and cylinders have since been subjected
to intensive research with regard to axial crushing, e.g., Refs. [6669]. Kato [70],
in 1965, was the rst author to the writers knowledge to apply mechanism theory
to investigate axially compressed plate elements. The main aim of his work was to
derive knowledge of limiting width to thickness ratios of plate elements below which
the full plastic capacity could be ensured without buckling. From the early 1970s
an explosion in the development of the mechanism approach ensued. This was inu-
enced in no small way by the work of Murray, e.g., Refs. [71,72], who published
extensively on the use of plastic mechanisms in thin-walled beams, stiffened panels,
etc. Murray summarised the research to date in 1984 [73].
It is not within the scope of this paper, nor the capability of the writer, to give
an exhaustive account of plastic mechanism analyses. These now have been used to
study the behaviour of civil, mechanical, offshore, automobile, train and aircraft
structures, and within these elds mechanism analysis has been applied to such a
103 J. Rhodes / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 87108
wide variety of problems that to attempt any comprehensive coverage cannot be
contemplated within this paper. Instead, a brief mention of the mechanism analyses
that have been carried out at the University of Strathclyde in recent years will be
made, on the grounds that very little of the research at this university on plastic
mechanisms has been published other than in the form of research theses.
5.1. Research on plastic mechanisms at Strathclyde University, UK
There have been a few M.Phil. research projects carried out over the past 15 years
or so dealing with the static and dynamic impact behaviour of transversely loaded
beams. The work of these projects has not been published.
Sin [74] examined a variety of problems involving plate and beam behaviour using
mechanism analysis. Included among these were the collapse behaviour of channels
in bending, box sections in bending and compression, and rened mechanism analy-
sis of plates. In an endeavour to produce a mechanism approach that could differen-
tiate between different types of plate in-plane and out-of-plane boundary conditions,
Sin took account of membrane yield and bending yield lines in plates and produced
results quite close to those discussed earlier in Figs. 911 on the basis of mechanism
analysis. In dealing with box sections Sin formulated mechanisms which took
account of crinkly buckling of the corners and showed that these became the gov-
erning unloading mode, particularly in the case of slender cross-sections.
Wong [75] studied static and dynamic axial crushing behaviour of closed hat sec-
tions. To aid his research Wong was largely responsible for the design and building
of an impact test rig that could hurl a 60 kg mass at a specimen with a velocity of up
to 60 miles per hour. Wong carried out about 500 static and dynamic crushing tests.
Setiyono [76] used mechanism analysis to study the crippling behaviour in thin-
walled beams.
Lim [77] examined the behaviour of plain and lipped channel and Z-section beams
using mechanism approaches. Lims main aim here was to examine statically indeter-
minate beams when the cross-section slenderness was such that local buckling could
occur either before plasticity had started or when moment redistribution was ongoing.
There are two other Ph.D. research projects on side-impact absorbers at the present time.
5.2. A concluding word or two on inclined hinges
Around 1980, on rst studying mechanism analysis, some particular points raised
the writers interest. One of these concerned the general capability of mechanism
theory to consider the ner points of plate behaviour; i.e., as mentioned previously,
the differences in behaviour of plates with different in-plane boundary conditions
was not immediately amenable to calculation using the methods available. Some of
the work in Sins thesis studied this, with some degree of success, but as there still
remains some work to be done on this nothing has been published to date.
A second, and related, topic concerns the question of the moment capacity of
inclined hinges. It was obvious that the simple expression applicable to hinges per-
pendicular to the line of action of the load could not cover inclined hinge behaviour
with any degree of accuracy. It also seemed likely that the modied formula used
104 J. Rhodes / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 87108
at the time for inclined hinges must become very inaccurate when the inclination
tends towards 90 as the modied formula would give an innite moment capacity,
even when taken per unit length of hinge. Although inclinations of this order may
not have any real importance in the analyses generally being undertaken, if rened
mechanisms were to be considered and plates with, for example, xity conditions
on the unloaded edges were to be considered, then an accurate assessment of the
capacity of an inclined hinge could be advantageous.
With this in mind the writer examined the inclined hinge shown in Fig. 12, using
the von Mises yield criterion to get the following expression for the moment per
unit length on the inclined hinge:
M

p
M
p

[1(N/N
0
)
2
]
13/4(N/N
0
)
2
sin
2
g(43 sin
2
g)
, (16)
where N
0
is the yield stress resultant.
As may be seen from the expression, if the inclination is zero this reduces to the
well known expression for a hinge perpendicular to the axial force. For all other
inclinations there is a variation in moment capacity per unit length of hinge in com-
parison with the g = 0 value so long as N is not zero. If N is zero then, as would
be expected, the moment capacity per unit length is independent of hinge angle.
This expression has been used by Sin [74] and Lim [77], a number of other research
students and also by some colleagues in joint research in Poland. It has indeed been
used in Polish publications, but only very recently in publications in English [78]. It
is therefore perhaps an appropriate time to give this expression an airing.
In preparing this paper a substantial amount of theoretical work carried out on
the yield capacity of inclined hinges has been brought to the writers attention. Of
particular interest here are the mechanism analyses of Zhao and Hancock [7981]
Fig. 12. Inclined hinge in axially loaded plate.
105 J. Rhodes / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 87108
and the further work of Zhao, Lip and Grzebieta [82]. In Ref. [81] expressions for
the moment capacity were derived which could be solved iteratively.
Comparison of the values from Eq. (16) with those of Ref. [81] show that while
there are common features, there are signicant differences in the predicted
capacities. This is therefore a situation in which further research would be most
useful to provide an in-depth comparison of the predictions of both approaches.
6. Concluding comments
This paper was intended to give a brief summary of plates and plate structures in
the elastic and plastic range from the writers particular viewpoint, without
attempting to be in any way comprehensive. It has quickly become obvious that such
a summary of this rapidly expanding eld is certain to omit vast quantities of
extremely important research. Some of the main researchers in the eld have either
not been mentioned or only mentioned in passing although their contributions to the
eld have been extremely substantial, and the writer apologises for the necessary
omission of many important names and works.
Appendix A
Table 1
Table of buckling coefcients K and post-buckling coefcients for use with Eqs. (4, 1115)
Coefcient Simply supported plates Fully xed plates Intermediate conditions
C
1
C
1S
=
3 + 1.1e
3
1 + 0.673e
3
C
1F
=
2.44 + 1.7e
3
1 + 1.375e
3
C
1
=
10.094R
1/C
1S
0.094R/C
1F
C
2
C
2S
=
0.22
(e0.07)
2
+ 0.06 C
2F
=
0.088
(e0.2)
2
+ 0.07 C
2
=
C
2S
(0.07/e
2
)RC
2F
10.07R/e
2
C
3
C
3S
=
3 + 50.6e
4
1 + 13e
4
C
3F
=
2.44 + 13.25e
3
1 + 5e
3
C
3
=
C
3S
(0.08 + 0.5e)RC
3F
1(0.08 + 0.5e)R
C
4
C
4S
=
0.54
e
2
+ 0.08 C
4F
=
0.15
e
2
+ 0.1 C
4
=
C
4S
(0.175 + 0.075e)RC
4F
1(0.175 + 0.075e)R
C
5
C
5S
= 1.64 + 2.35e
2
+ 0.255e
4
C
5F
= 1.2 + 3.6e
2
+ 0.3e
4
C
5
=
C
5S
0.2RC
5F
10.2R
C
6
C
6S
= 0.21e
2
+ 0.44/e
2
0.065 C
6F
= 0.4e
2
+ 0.08e
4
0.15
C
6
=
C
65
0.2e
2
RC
6F
10.2e
2
R
K K
S
= 2 + e
2
+ 1/e
2
K
F
= 2.49 + 5.139e
2
+ 0.975/e
2
K =
K
S
QRK
F
1QR
, Q = 0.1e/
(0.152 + e)
106 J. Rhodes / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 87108
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