Assignment 2

1. Explain the curve shown in figure below.

Solution Whenever a structural member is designed, it is necessary that it satisfies specific strength, deflection and stability requirements. Typically strength (or in some cases fracture toughness) is used to determine failure, while assuming that the member will always be in static equilibrium. However, when certain structural members are subjected to compressive loads, they may either fail due to the compressive stress exceeding the yield strength or they may fail due to lateral deflection called buckling. Buckling is instability of columns under compression. Any axial members that support compressive axial loads, such as the weight of the building are called columns and not all structural members behave the same, (M.Vable).

 For any material, the critical buckling stress can be plotted as a function of slenderness (see figure). The tangent modulus curve is tangent to the Euler curve at the point corresponding to the proportional limit of the material. The composite curve called a column strength curve, completely describes the stability of any column of a given material. Other than Fy, E, and Et, which are properties of the material, the strength is a function only of the slenderness ratio. The slenderness ratio is defined as Leff/ r where r is the radius of gyration about the buckling axis. The slenderness ratio at which the maximum normal stress is equal to the yield stress separates the short columns from the long columns in Euler buckling. Both the Euler and tangent modulus equations are based on the following assumptions: 1. The column is perfectly straight, 2. The load is axial, with no eccentricity, 3. The column is pinned at both ends.

The first two conditions mean that there is no bending moment in the member before buckling. The requirement for pinned ends, however, is a serious limitation, and provisions must be made for other support conditions. For convenience, the equations for critical buckling load will be written as:

where KL the effective length, and K is the effectiveness length factor. The failure of shor columns is governed by material strength meanwhile the failure of long columns is governed by Euler buckling loads.