Buckling of strut

Introduction
Ideally, a perfectly straight strut, when subjected to a purely compressive load, would compress and
not buckle.Buckling is therefore the result of imperfections that prevent the load from being applied
perfectly axially; e.g. from eccentric loading and lack of initial straightness.

Principles

Figure 1: Column with pinned ends.

The bending moment at any section, M= -Pv , when inserted into the equation for the elastic
behaviour of a beam , Elv” =M, yields

2
d υ
EI 2
+P υ=0
dx
The solution of this differential equation is

υ=c 1
√ P
EI
x +c 2 cos
P
√
EI
x

where the constant of integration, c 1 and c 2 ,are determine from the end conditions:
v(0) =v(L) =).From v(0) =0, we find that c 2=0 .substituting the second condition into equation
above, we obtain;

c 1 sin
√ P
EI
L=0
It must be concluded that either c 1=0 , in which case v= 0 for all x and the column remains
straight regardless of load, or sin √ P /EIL=0 .The case c 1=0 corresponding to the conditions
of no buckling and yields a trivial solution.It is satisfied if

√ P
EI
L=n π n=1,2....

The value of P ascertained from the equation above,that is , the load for which the column may be
maintained in a deflected shape, is the critical load
n2 π2 EI
( P cr )n =
L2
Where, L represents the original length of the column. Assume that column deflect is in no way
restricted to a particular plane, the deflection may be expected to occur about an axis through the
centroid for which the second moment of area is minimum.The lowest critical load or Euler
buckling load of the pin-ended column is of greatest interest; for n=1
π2 EI
P cr =
L2

Objective
1. 1.To determine the critical load for a strut before it fails due to lateral deflection.
2. 2.To apply the Euler theory of buckling
3. To investigate the relationship between length and buckling load(N) on a different type of
support condition.

Reference-
https://www.coursehero.com/file/17345480/Buckling-Test-Proper-one/
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-14161-6_8