• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.171-185
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• 2001

The design of tall buildings has recently provided many challenges to structural engineers. One such challenge is to minimise the cross-sectional dimensions of columns to ensure greater floor space in a building is attainable. This has both an economic and aesthetics benefit in buildings, which require structural engineering solutions. The use of high strength steel in tall buildings has the ability to achieve these benefits as the material provides a higher strength to cross-section ratio. However as the strength of the steel is increased the buckling characteristics become more dominant with slenderness limits for both local and global buckling becoming more significant. To arrest the problems associated with buckling of high strength steel, concrete filling and encasement can be utilised as it has the affect of changing the buckling mode, which increases the strength and stiffness of the member. This paper describes an experimental program undertaken for both encased and concrete filled composite columns, which were designed to be stocky in nature and thus fail by strength alone. The columns were designed to consider the strength in axial compression and were fabricated from high strength steel plate. In addition to the encased and concrete filled columns, unencased columns and hollow columns were also fabricated and tested to act as calibration specimens. A model for the axial strength was suggested and this is shown to compare well with the test results. Finally aspects of further research are addressed in this paper which include considering the effects of slender columns which may fail by global instabilities.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.441-457
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• 2007

A new numerical model based on the spline finite strip method is presented here for the analysis of buckling of built-up columns with and without end stay plates. The channels are modelled with spline finite strips while the connecting elements are represented by a 3D beam finite element, for which the stiffness matrix is modified in order to ensure complete compatibility with the strips. This numerical model has the advantage to give all possible failure modes of built-up columns for different boundary conditions. The end stay plates are also taken into account in this method. To validate the model a comparative study was carried out. First, a general procedure was chosen and adopted. For each numerical analysis, the lowest buckling loads and modes were calculated. The basic or "pure" buckling modes were identified and their critical loads were compared with solutions obtained using analytical methods and/or other numerical methods. The results showed that the proposed numerical model can be used in practice to study the elastic buckling of built-up columns. This model is considered accurate and efficient for the local buckling of short columns and global buckling for slender columns.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.289-304
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• 2000

This study discusses on the experimental and analytical results of the global buckling tests, carried out on aluminum alloy double layer space grids composed of tubular members, ball joints and connecting bolts at the member ends, with the purpose of demonstrating the effectiveness of a simplified analysis method using an equivalent slenderness ratio for the members. Because very few experiments have been carried out on this type of aluminum space grids, the buckling behavior is investigated experimentally over the post buckling regions using several space grid specimen with various values for the member slenderness ratio. The observed behavior duping the experiments is compared with the analytically obtained results. The comparison is made based on two different schemes; one on the plastic hinge method considering a bending moment-axial force interaction for members and the other on a method using an equivalent slenderness ratio. It is confirmed that the equivalent slenderness method can be effectively applied, even in the post buckling regions, once the effects of the rotational rigidity at the ball joints are appropriately evaluated, because the rigidity controls the buckling behavior. The effectiveness of the equivalent slenderness method will be widely utilized for estimation of the ultimate strength, even in post buckling regions for large span aluminum space grids composed of an extreme large number of nodes and members.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.561-580
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• 2020

Buckling restrained braces (BRBs) were developed as an enhanced alternative to conventional braces by restraining their global buckling, thus allowing development of a stable quasi-symmetric hysteretic response. A wider adoption of buckling restrained braced frames is precluded due to proprietary character of most BRBs and the code requirement for experimental qualification. To overcome these problems, BRBs with capacities corresponding to typical steel multi-storey buildings in Romania were developed and experimentally tested in view of prequalification. In the second part of this paper, a complex nonlinear numerical model for the tested BRBs was developed in the finite element environment Abaqus. The calibration of the numerical model was performed at both component (material models: steel, concrete, unbonding material) and member levels (loading, geometrical imperfections). Geometrically and materially nonlinear analyses including imperfections were performed on buckling restrained braces models under cyclic loading. The calibrated models were further used to perform a parametric study aiming at assessing the influence of the strength of the buckling restraining mechanism, concrete class of the infill material, mechanical properties of steel used for the core, self-weight loading, and frame effect on the cyclic response of buckling restrained braces.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.1A
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• pp.99-106
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• 2006

Due to single symmetry of cross section, T-shaped members are likely to buckle in a flexural-torsional mode when they are subjected to axial compression. Therefore, the flexural-torsional buckling can be regarded as a governing mode of global buckling. An experimental program has been carried out to investigate the flexural-torsional buckling behavior of pultruded T-shaped members. Two types of pultruded members were tested in the experiment, and they were made of either E-glass/vinylester or E-glass/polyester. Lay-up and thickness of reinforcing layers, volume fractions of each constituents in layers, mechanical properties were experimentally determined. Two sets of knife edge fixure were used to simulate simple support condition for flexure and twisting, and the lateral displacements and the angle of twist were measured using three potentiometers. Every specimen buckled in a flexural-torsional mode, and most of the specimens showed post-buckling strength.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.693-718
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• 2016

This paper presents a finite element procedure based on Bridging multi-scale method (BMM) in order to incorporate the effect of local/cross-sectional deformations (e.g., flange local buckling and web crippling) on the global behaviour of thin-walled members made of fibre-reinforced polymer composite laminates. This method allows the application of local shell elements in critical regions of an existing beam-type model. Therefore, it obviates the need for using computationally expensive shell elements in the whole domain of the structure, which is otherwise necessary to capture the effect of the localized behaviour. Consequently, highly accurate analysis results can be achieved with this method by using significantly smaller finite element model, compared to the existing methods. The proposed method can be used for composite polymer laminates with arbitrary fibre orientation directions in different layers of the material, and under various loading conditions. Comparison with full shell-type finite element analysis results are made in order to illustrate the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed technique.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.393-403
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• 2019

Cold-formed steel (CFS) has a great potential to meet the global challenge of fast-track and durable construction. CFS members undergo large buckling instabilities due to their small wall thickness. CFS beams with corrugated webs have shown great resistance towards web buckling under flexure, when compared to the conventional I-sections. However, the magnitude of global imperfections significantly affects the performance of CFS members. This paper presents the first attempt made to experimentally study the effect of global imperfections on the structural efficiency of various strengthening schemes implemented in CFS beams with corrugated webs. Different strengthening schemes were adopted for two types of beams, one with large global imperfections and the other with small imperfections. Strength and stiffness characteristics of the beams were used to evaluate the structural efficiency of the various strengthening schemes adopted. Six tests were performed with simply supported end conditions, under four-point loading conditions. The load vs. mid-span displacement response, failure loads and modes of failure of the test specimens were investigated. The test results would compensate the lack of experimental data in this area of research and would help in developing numerical models for extensive studies for the development of necessary guidelines on the same. Strengthening schemes assisted in enhancing the member performance significantly, both in terms of strength and stiffness. Hence, providing an economic and time saving solution to such practical structural engineering problems.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.411-422
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• 2015

The design and buckling behavior of earth retaining system supported by high strength steel pipe and PHC pile under compression is presented in this study. Buckling analysis of various strut system was investigated according to the strut total length(30m, 60m, 90m), three types of built-up columns and connection condition. Buckling loads calculated by F.E analysis was compared with the theoretical solution corresponding to diagonal buckling mode, local and global buckling mode of main strut. The design of the built-up column struts are performed based on design guide for high strength steel pipes and P-M diagram for built-up column with two PHC pile section.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.215-241
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• 2014

Steel catenary riser (SCR) is a popular/economical solution for the oil/gas production in deep and ultra-deep water. The behavioral characteristics of SCR have a high correlation with the motion of floating production facility at its survival and operational environments. When large motions of surface floaters occur, such as FPSO in 100-yr storm case, they can cause unacceptable negative tension on SCR near TDZ (touch down zone) and the corresponding elastic deflection can be large due to local dynamic buckling. The generation, propagation, and decay of the elastic wave are also affected by SCR and seabed soil interaction effects. The temporary local dynamic buckling vanishes with the recovery of tension on SCR with the upheaval motion of surface floater. Unlike larger-scale, an-order-of-magnitude longer period global buckling driven by heat and pressure variations in subsea pipelines, the sub-critical local dynamic buckling of SCR is motion-driven and short cycled, which, however, can lead to permanent structural damage when the resulting stress is greatly amplified beyond the elastic limit. The phenomenon is extensively investigated in this paper by using the vessel-mooring-riser coupled dynamic analysis program. It is found that the moment of large downward heave motion at the farthest-horizontal-offset position is the most dangerous for the local dynamic buckling.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.337-348
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• 2012

This study investigated the characteristics of bifurcation and the instability due to the initial imperfection of the space truss, which is sensitive to the initial conditions, and the calculated buckling load by the analysis of Eigen-values and the determinant of tangential stiffness. A two-free nodes model, a star dome, and a three-ring dome model were selected as case studies in order to examine the unstable phenomenon due to the sensitivity to Eigen mode, and the influence of the rise-span ratio and the load parameter on the buckling load were analyzed. The sensitivity to the imperfection of the two-free nodes model changed the critical path after reaching the limit point through the bifurcation mode, and the buckling load level was reduced by the increase in the amount of imperfection. The two sensitive buckling patterns for the model can be explained by investigating the displaced position of the free node, and the asymmetric Eigen mode was a major influence on the unstable behavior due to the initial imperfection. The sensitive mode was similar to the in-extensional mechanism basis of the simplified model. Since the rise-span ratio was higher, the effect of local buckling is more prominent than the global buckling in the star dome, and bifurcation on the equilibrium path occurring as the value of the load parameter was higher. Additionally, the buckling load levels of the star dome and the three-ring model were about 50-70% and 80-90% of the limit point, respectively.