An exact solution in a nonlinear theory of rods

A three dimensional nonlinear equilibrium theory of elastic rods, applicable to large displacements and small strains, and accounting for extensibility and shear deformation is developed. Integrals of the governing equations are determined for the case of specified end force and moment. A class of solutions is obtained for an initially straight, untwisted rod and compared to the classical solution. The effects of extensibility and shear deformation are discussed.     

States of Equilibrium and Secondary Loss of Stability of a Straight Rod Loaded by an Axial Force

A general analytical solution of the problem of postcritical deformation of a straight incompressible rod loaded by an axial force is given. The bending of the rod is studied under various boundary conditions, and new states of equilibrium the occurrence of which is due to the secondary loss of stability are found. It is shown that, for simply supported and clamped rods, the solution bifurcates when the ends meet.     

Experiments on the postbuckling behavior of circular cylindrical shells under compression

Detailed experimental studies are performed on the postbuckling behavior of circular cylindrical shells under compression, by using polyester test cylinders with the geometric parameterZ ranging from 20 to 1000. In each case, variations of the equilibrium load, circumferential wave number and maximum inward and outward deflections, with applied edge shortenings, are clarified. Contour lines for typical postbuckling configurations are also shown. It is found that, as the cylinder is compressed beyond the primary buckling, secondary bucklings take place successively with diminishing wave numbers, and that postbuckling equilibrium loads become significantly lower than those at buckling asZ increases. Further, for short shells withZ≦100, the buckled waveforms are always symmetric with one-tier diamond buckles, while for longer shells, asymmetric postbuckling patterns with two tiers of buckles dominate.     

Analytic postbuckling solution of a pre-stressed infinite beam bonded to a linear elastic foundation

The postbuckling deflection of an infinite beam that is bonded to a linear elastic foundation and is subjected to an internal compressive stress is analyzed. The nonlinear equilibrium equation that governs the problem considers extensional deformation of the beam. An analytic solution of the nonlinear equilibrium equation is presented and is found to be in good agreement with numerical simulations of the problem. The numerical simulations confirm that for a linear elastic foundation the postbuckling deflection is periodic. The analytic solution shows that the postbuckling wavelength is unaffected by the level of internal stress, and is equal to the wavelength at the critical state.     

Buckling and post-buckling of extensible rods revisited: A multiple-scale solution

An exact non-linear formulation of the equilibrium of elastic prismatic rods subjected to compression and planar bending is presented, electing as primary displacement variable the cross-section rotations and taking into account the axis extensibility. Such a formulation proves to be sufficiently general to encompass any boundary condition. The evaluation of critical loads for the five classical Euler buckling cases is pursued, allowing for the assessment of the axis extensibility effect. From the quantitative viewpoint, it is seen that such an influence is negligible for very slender bars, but it dramatically increases as the slenderness ratio decreases. From the qualitative viewpoint, its effect is that there are not infinite critical loads, as foreseen by the classical inextensible theory. The method of multiple (spatial) scales is used to survey the post-buckling regime for the five classical Euler buckling cases, with remarkable success, since very small deviations were observed with respect to results obtained via numerical integration of the exact equation of equilibrium, even when loads much higher than the critical ones were considered. Although known beforehand that such classical Euler buckling cases are imperfection insensitive, the effect of load offsets were also looked at, thus showing that the formulation is sufficiently general to accommodate this sort of analysis.     

Secondary buckling of an elastic column with spring-supports at clamped ends

Summary The postbuckling behavior of an elastic column with spring supports of equal stiffness of extensional type at both clamped ends is studied. Attention is focused on those of spring stiffnesses near the critical value at which, under axial load, the column becomes critical with respect to two buckling modes simultaneously. By using the Liapunov-Schmidt-Koiter approach, we show that there are precisely two secondary bifurcation points on each primary postbuckling state for the spring stiffness greater than the critical value. The bifurcation takes place at one of the two least buckling loads. The corresponding secondary postbuckling states connect all the secondary bifurcation points in a loop. For the spring stiffness less than the critical value, no secondary bifurcation occurs. Asymptotic expansions of the primary and secondary postbuckling states are constructed. The stability analysis indicates that the primary postbuckling state for the spring stiffness greater than the critical value is bifurcating from the first buckling load and becomes unstable from a stable state via the secondary bifurcation, i.e., secondary buckling occurs. Received 22 April 1997; accepted for publication 22 December 1997     

Semi-analytical stability analysis of doubly-curved orthotropic shallow panels — considering the effects of boundary conditions

This paper focuses on the development of the partitioned solution method (PSM) for analyzing the stability behavior of doubly-curved shallow orthotropic panels under external pressure, covering both the buckling and postbuckling responses. Adjacent equilibrium method (AEM) is used to verify the developed PSM method and the associated stability results. The equilibrium and compatibility equations are derived using Donnell-type thin shell theory, with the Airy stress function and the out-of-plane displacement as unknowns. Based on AEM and PSM, both an eigenvalue problem and non-linear algebraic equations are obtained which are used as the basis for the stability criteria, respectively. Results obtained from those two methods are presented and compared with each other for a few arbitrary sets of system parameters, wherein no postbuckling solutions are presented with AEM. The influence of the boundary conditions on the stability behavior is also investigated using the PSM.     

Coupled extensional and bending motion in elastic waveguides

A variety of different linear elastic waves propagate in long slender rods. These waves do not interact in straight rods; however, extensional and bending waves do interact in slightly curved rods. If curved rods are used as waveguides for extensional waves, wave energy is exchanged between extensional and beding waves. The result has the superficial appearance of viscous attenuation.

The petroleum and geothermal industries have an interest in using drill pipe as a waveguide to transmit data by acoustic waves. Attempts have been made to transmit data from transducers in the vivinity of a drill bit to the drill rig at the surface. These efforts have not been successful. Poor signal strenght is a major problem. Historically,the observed reduction in signal strength is attributed to viscous dissipation. This paper proposes an alternative model-mode conversion from extensional waves to bending waves. This model is analyzes both as an eigenvalue problem and a transient finite-difference problem. The results predict measured attenuation levels, and account for many anomalous observations.     

Non-linear stability analysis of imperfect thin-walled composite beams

The static non-linear behavior of thin-walled composite beams is analyzed considering the effect of initial imperfections. A simple approach is used for determining the influence of imperfection on the buckling, prebuckling and postbuckling behavior of thin-walled composite beams. The fundamental and secondary equilibrium paths of perfect and imperfect systems corresponding to a major imperfection are analyzed for the case where the perfect system has a stable symmetric bifurcation point. A geometrically non-linear theory is formulated in the context of large displacements and rotations, through the adoption of a shear deformable displacement field. An initial displacement, either in vertical or horizontal plane, is considered in presence of initial geometric imperfection. Ritz's method is applied in order to discretize the non-linear differential system and the resultant algebraic equations are solved by means of an incremental Newton-Rapshon method. The numerical results are presented for a simply supported beam subjected to axial or lateral load. It is shown in the examples that a major imperfection reduces the load-carrying capacity of thin-walled beams. The influence of this effect is analyzed for different fiber orientation angle of a symmetric balanced lamination. In addition, the postbuckling response obtained with the present beam model is compared with the results obtained with a shell finite element model (Abaqus).     

Postbuckling Behavior of Compressed Rods in an Elastic Medium

The postbuckling of rods loaded by a compressive force P in an elastic medium is considered. The resolving nonlinear equation is obtained, and a method for solving this equation is given. It is shown that, for large lengths, in contrast to the case without elastic medium, the deflection increases as the force P decreases after the loss of stability. Several simple finite-element models, namely, the problems of compression of multilink rods with links connected by springs, are considered to confirm this effect.     

Postbuckling of double-walled carbon nanotubes with temperature dependent properties and initial defects under combined axial and radial mechanical loads

Buckling and postbuckling analysis is presented for a double-walled carbon nanotube subjected to combined axial and radial loads in thermal environments. The analysis is based on a continuum mechanics model in which each tube of a double-walled carbon nanotube is described as an individual orthotropic shell with presence of van der Waals interaction forces and the interlayer friction is negligible between the inner and outer tubes. The governing equations are based on higher order shear deformation shell theory with a von Kármán-Donnell-type of kinematic nonlinearity and include thermal effects. Temperature-dependent material properties, which come from molecular dynamics simulations, and initial point defect, which is simulated as a dimple on the tube wall, are both taken into account. A singular perturbation technique is employed to determine the interactive buckling loads and postbuckling equilibrium paths. The numerical illustrations concern the postbuckling response of perfect and imperfect, double-walled carbon nanotubes subjected to combined axial and radial mechanical loads under different sets of thermal environments. The results reveal that temperature change only has a small effect on the postbuckling behavior of the double-walled carbon nanotube. The axially-loaded double-walled carbon nanotube subjected to radial pressure has an unstable postbuckling path, and the structure is imperfection–sensitive. In contrast, the pressure-loaded double-walled carbon nanotube subjected to axial compression has a very weak “snap-through” postbuckling path, and the structure is virtually imperfection–insensitive.     

Postbuckling and mode jumping analysis of composite laminates using an asymptotically correct, geometrically non-linear theory

An analytic method is presented in this paper to study the postbuckling and mode jumping behavior of bi-axially compressed composite laminates. The governing partial differential equations (PDEs) are derived rigorously from an asymptotically correct, geometrically non-linear theory. A novel and relatively simpler solution approach is developed to solve the two coupled fourth-order PDEs, namely, the compatibility equation and the dynamic governing equation. The generalized Galerkin method is used to solve boundary value problems corresponding to antisymmetric angle-ply and cross-ply composite plates, respectively. The variety of possible modal interactions is expressed in an explicit and concise form by transforming the coupled non-linear governing equations into a system of non-linear ordinary differential equations (ODEs).

The comparison between the present method and the finite element analysis (FEA) shows a pretty good match in their numerical results in the primary postbuckling region. While the FEA may lose its convergence when solution comes close to the secondary bifurcation point, the analytic approach has the capability of exploring deeply into the post-secondary buckling realm and capture the mode jumping phenomenon for various combinations of plate configurations and in-plane boundary conditions. Free vibration along the stable primary postbuckling and the jumped equilibrium paths are also studied.     

Exact solution and stability of postbuckling configurations of beams

We present an exact solution for the postbuckling configurations of beams with fixed–fixed, fixed–hinged, and hinged–hinged boundary conditions. We take into account the geometric nonlinearity arising from midplane stretching, and as a result, the governing equation exhibits a cubic nonlinearity. We solve the nonlinear buckling problem and obtain a closed-form solution for the postbuckling configurations in terms of the applied axial load. The critical buckling loads and their associated mode shapes, which are the only outcome of solving the linear buckling problem, are obtained as a byproduct. We investigate the dynamic stability of the obtained postbuckling configurations and find out that the first buckled shape is a stable equilibrium position for all boundary conditions. However, we find out that buckled configurations beyond the first buckling mode are unstable equilibrium positions. We present the natural frequencies of the lowest vibration modes around each of the first three buckled configurations. The results show that many internal resonances might be activated among the vibration modes around the same as well as different buckled configurations. We present preliminary results of the dynamic response of a fixed–fixed beam in the case of a one-to-one internal resonance between the first vibration mode around the first buckled configuration and the first vibration mode around the second buckled configuration.     

Axial instability of rotating rods revisited

For strain sufficiently small such that Hooke's Law is valid, it is shown that only a linear model for axial deformation of rotating rods can be derived. As discussed in the literature, this linear model exhibits an instability when the angular speed reaches a certain critical value. However, unless this linear model is valid for large strain, it is impossible to determine whether this instability really exists; because, as the angular speed is increased, the strain becomes large well short of the critical speed. Next, axial deformation of rotating rods is analyzed using two strain energy functions to model non-linear elastic behavior. The first of these functions is the usual quadratic strain energy function augmented with a cubic term. With this model it is shown that no instability exists if the non-linearity is stiffening (i.e. if the coefficient of the cubic term is positive), although the strain can become large. If the non-linearity is of the softening variety, then the critical angular speed drops as the degree of softening increases. Still, the strains are large enough that, except for rubber-like materials, a non-linear elastic model is not likely to be appropriate. The second strain energy function is based on the square of the logarithmic strain and yields a softening model. It quite accurately models the behavior of certain rubber rods which exhibit the instability within the validated range of elongation.     

Three-dimensional dynamics of supported pipes conveying fluid

This paper deals with the three-dimensional dynamics and postbuckling behavior of flexible supported pipes conveying fluid, considering flow velocities lower and higher than the critical value at which the buckling instability occurs. In the case of low flow velocity, the pipe is stable with a straight equilibrium position and the dynamics of the system can be examined using linear theory. When the flow velocity is beyond the critical value, any motions of the pipe could be around the postbuckling configuration (non-zero equilibrium position) rather than the straight equilibrium position, so nonlinear theory is required. The nonlinear equations of perturbed motions around the postbuckling configuration are derived and solved with the aid of Galerkin discretization. It is found, for a given flow velocity, that the first-mode frequency for in-plane motions is quite different from that for out-of-plane motions. However, the second- or third-mode frequencies for in-plane motions are approximately equal to their counterparts for out-of-plane motions, keeping almost constant values with increasing flow velocity. Moreover, the orientation angle of the postbuckling configuration plane for a buckled pipe can be significantly affected by initial conditions, displaying new features which have not been observed in the same pipe system factitiously supposed to deform in a single plane.     

Effect of Coulomb Damping on Buckling of a Two-Rod System

This paper describes a significant influence of a slight Coulomb damping on buckling, using a simple two rods system. Coulomb damping produces equilibrium regions around the well-known stable and unstable steady states under the pitchfork bifurcation which occurs in the case without Coulomb damping. Also, the stability of the states in the equilibrium regions is examined by using the phase portrait. As a consequence, due to the slight Coulomb damping, it is theoretically clarified that the states in the equilibrium regions are locally stable, even in the neighborhood of the unstable steady states under the pitchfork bifurcation in the case without Coulomb damping, i.e., even in the neighborhood of the unstable trivial steady states in the postbuckling and the unstable nontrivial steady states under the subcritical pitchfork bifurcation. Furthermore, the experimental results are in qualitative agreement with the theoretically predicted phenomena.     

Isogeometric nonlocal strain gradient quasi-three-dimensional plate model for thermal postbuckling of porous functionally graded microplates with central cutout with different shapes

This study presents the size-dependent nonlinear thermal postbuckling characteristics of a porous functionally graded material(PFGM) microplate with a central cutout with various shapes using isogeometric numerical technique incorporating nonuniform rational B-splines. To construct the proposed non-classical plate model, the nonlocal strain gradient continuum elasticity is adopted on the basis of a hybrid quasithree-dimensional(3D) plate theory under through-thickness deformation conditions by only four variables. By taking a refined power-law function into account in conjunction with the Touloukian scheme, the temperature-porosity-dependent material properties are extracted. With the aid of the assembled isogeometric-based finite element formulations,nonlocal strain gradient thermal postbuckling curves are acquired for various boundary conditions as well as geometrical and material parameters. It is portrayed that for both size dependency types, by going deeper in the thermal postbuckling domain, gaps among equilibrium curves associated with various small scale parameter values get lower, which indicates that the pronounce of size effects reduces by going deeper in the thermal postbuckling regime. Moreover, we observe that the central cutout effect on the temperature rise associated with the thermal postbuckling behavior in the presence of the effect of strain gradient size and absence of nonlocality is stronger compared with the case including nonlocality in absence of the strain gradient small scale effect.     

On the free shapes of elastic rods

The problem of free shape consists in finding the form that an elastic body must have in a natural state in order that it shall assume a given form in an equilibrium configuration under the action of assigned loads. The problem, that is of interest in itself, arises in some practical applications and can constitute a preliminary step in the study of some mechanical properties of classes of equilibrium configurations that are not natural states. This paper examines the problem of free shape for inextensible elastic rods which in equilibrium are subject only to the action of forces and couples applied to the ends, and whose deformations can be described by the theory of finite displacements of thin rods due to Kirchhoff. After the general equations governing the problem have been deduced, they are employed to give a classification of the free shapes of rods that in equilibrium are circular rings.