Buckling Problem

Consider a thin, uniform beam of length l, An axial load P is applied to the beam at one of
the ends, as shown below
We are interested in the stability of the beamthat is, how and when the beam buckles,
and show how this problem gives rise to an eigenvalue problem and what role the eigenvalues
play.
Let y denote the vertical displacement of a point of the beam that is at a distance x from
the left support. Suppose that both the ends of the beam are simply supportedthat is,
y(0) = y(l) = 0. From beam theory, the basic relationship between the curvature d
2
y/dx
2
and
the internal moment M for the beam is
d
2
y
dx
2
=
M
EI
,
where E is the modulus of elasticity and I is the area moment of inertia of column cross section.
Writing the bending moment at any section as M = Py, the equation gives the governing
dierential equation, which is the bending moment equation:
EI
d
2
y
dx
2
= Py. (1)
The constant EI is called the exural rigidity of the beam. The bending moment equation
and the boundary conditions y(0) = y(l) = 0 constitute a BVP.
We solve this BVP by approximating d
2
y/dx
2
with an appropriate nite dierence scheme.
Let the interval [0, l] be partitioned into n subintervals of equal length h, with x
0
, x
1
, . . . , x
n
as
the points of division and taking into account the boundary conditions, we obtain the following
symmetric tridiagonal matrix eigenvalue problem:

2 1 0 . . . 0
1 2 1
.
.
.
.
.
.
0 1 2
.
.
. 0
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. 1
0 . . . 0 1 2

y
1
y
2
.
.
.
y
n

y
1
y
2
.
.
.
y
n

,
1
where =
Ph
2
EI
. Each value of determines a load
P =
EI
h
2
called a critical load. These critical loads are the ones that are of practical interest, because
they determine the possible onset of the buckling of the beam.
In general the smallest value of P is of primary importance, becauese the bending associated
with larger values of P may not be obtained without failure occuring under the action of the
lowest critical value P.
Problem. Find the three smallest values of axial load P and the vertical displacement of a
point of the beam y for each axial load, using the nite dierence approach (h = 0.3 m). The
following parameter values apply: E=200 GPa, I = 30, 000 cm
4
, and l= 3 m.
2