International Journal of Solids and Structures 48 (2011) 119125

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International Journal of Solids and Structures

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijsolstr

Interactive buckling regarding the axial extension mode of a thin-walled channel under uniform compression in the rst nonlinear approximation
Zbigniew Kolakowski , Katarzyna Kowal-Michalska
Technical University of Lodz, Department of Strength of Materials and Structures (K12), ul. Stefanowskiego 1/15, PL-90-924 Lodz, Poland

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
The present paper deals with an inuence of the axial extension mode on interactive buckling of a thinwalled channel with imperfections subjected to uniform compression, when a shear lag phenomenon and distortional deformations are taken into account. A plate model is adopted for the channel. The structure is assumed to be simply supported at the ends. A method of the modal solution to the coupled buckling problem within the rst order approximation of Koiters asymptotic theory, using the transition matrix method and Godunovs orthogonalization (Kolakowski and Krolak, 2006), has been used. The calculations have been carried out for a thin-walled channel. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 15 July 2009 Received in revised form 14 September 2010 Available online 18 September 2010 Keywords: Thin-walled structures Interactive buckling Axial mode

1. Introduction Thin-walled structures composed of plate elements have many different buckling modes that vary in quantitative (e.g., a number of halfwaves) and qualitative (e.g., global and local buckling) aspects. The analysis of buckling in conservative systems belongs to the main problems that have been studied in mechanical sciences for a number of years. In the case of nite displacements, different buckling modes are interrelated even with the loads close to their critical values (eigenvalues of the respective boundary problem). The investigation of stability of equilibrium states requires an application of a nonlinear theory that enables estimation of an inuence of different factors on the structure behavior. In these cases, the postcritical behavior cannot be described any more by a single generalized displacement. When the postcritical behavior of each individual mode is stable, the mode interaction can lead to unstable behavior, and thus to an increase in the imperfection sensitivity (Ali and Sridharan, 1988; Benito and Sridharan, 1984 1985; Kolakowski and Krolak, 1995; Kolakowski, 1987, 1989a,b, 1993a,b; Kolakowski and Teter, 1995; Krolak and Kolakowski, 1995; Manevich, 1985, 1988; Manevich and Kolakowski, 1997; Moellmann and Goltermann, 1989; Pignataro and Luongo, 1987; Pignataro et al., 1985; Sridharan and Ali, 1986; Sridharan and Benito, 1984; Sridharan and Peng, 1989). A nonlinear stability theory should describe all modes of global, local, distortional and interac-

Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +48 42 636 49 85.

E-mail addresses: zbigniew.kolakowski@p.lodz.pl (Z. Kolakowski), katarzyna. kowal-michalska@p.lodz.pl (K. Kowal-Michalska). 0020-7683/$ - see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijsolstr.2010.09.010

tive buckling, taking into consideration the structure imperfections as well. The concept of interactive buckling (the so-called coupled buckling) involves the general asymptotic theory of stability (Thompson and Hunt, 1973; Budiansky, 1974). Among all versions of the general nonlinear theory, Koiters theory (Koiter, 1976; Koiter and Pignataro, 1976; Koiter and van der Neut, 1980) of conservative systems is the most popular one, due to its general character and development, even more so after Byskov and Hutchinson (1977) derived a complete set of formulas for the post-buckling constants associated with an interaction between modes. The theory is based on asymptotic expansions of the post-buckling path and is capable of considering nearly simultaneous buckling modes. The expression for potential energy of the system is expanded into a series relative to the amplitudes of linear modes near the point of bifurcation, which generally corresponds to the minimum value of critical load (the so-called bifurcation load). In the potential energy expression for the rst order nonlinear approximation, the coefcients of cubic terms are the key terms governing the interaction. In the case the critical values corresponding to global buckling modes are signicantly lower than local modes, their interaction can be considered within the rst nonlinear approximation (Byskov, 19871988; Kolakowski and Kowal-Michalska, 1999; Kolakowski and Teter, 2000; Kolakowski, 1993; Kolakowski et al., 1999; Sridharan and Ali, 1986; Sridharan and Peng, 1989). It is possible as the post-buckling coefcient for uncoupled buckling is equal to zero for the second order global mode in the Euler column model, and it is very often of little signicance in the case of an exact solution. The theoretical load-carrying capacity, obtained

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within the frame of the asymptotic theory of the nonlinear rst order approximation, is always lower than the minimum value of critical load for the linear problem and the imperfection sensitivity can be obtained only. The consideration of displacements and load components in the middle surface of walls within the rst order approximation, as well as precise geometrical relationships enabled the analysis of all possible buckling modes, including mixed buckling modes (e.g., the exuraldistorsional or localdistorsional mode for a more detailed analysis, see the papers by Camotim and Prola (1996), Dubina (1996), Kolakowski and Kowal-Michalska (1999), Kolakowski and Krolak (1995), Kolakowski and Teter (1995, 2000), Kollar (2001), Krolak and Kolakowski (1995), Krolak et al. (2001) and Teter and Kolakowski (2005)). In thin-walled structures of open cross-sections, due to their low rigidity, it is necessary to consider distortional deformations. The numerical calculations presented in the papers by Kolakowski (1987, 1989a,b) have proven that an interaction of local modes having considerably different wavelengths is either very weak or does not occur at all. Moreover, one can see that an interaction of two global buckling modes is very weak or even does not occur at all as well. The expansion of Byskov and Hutchinson (1977) is concerned with a number of interacting modes, be they local or global, but their examples are limited to one local and one global mode. In the paper by Byskov et al. (1988), an interaction of global (overall) modes is treated with the Byskov and Hutchinsons method (1977). It can be noticed that the global exural (Euler) buckling can interact with an even number of modes that are symmetric or antisymmetric but the global exuraltorsional mode interacts with pairs of symmetric and antisymmetric modes only (Kolakowski and Kowal-Michalska, 1999; Kolakowski and Teter, 2000; Kolakowski, 1993a; Teter and Kolakowski, 2004). Dubina (1996) has paid special attention to an interaction of global modes of buckling (exural, exuraltorsional, lateral) with the distortional and/or localized mode (Byskov, 19871988). In some cases, an improper selection of the mode, even if a few of them are considered, can lead to an overestimation of the structure load-carrying capacity; also the consideration of the two-mode approach may sometimes be misleading and yield false conclusions. This task can be accomplished only by means of a nonlinear analysis (Kolakowski, 1993a; Teter and Kolakowski, 2004). Since the late 1980s, the Generalized Beam Theory (GBT) (Basaglia et al., 2008; Camotim and Prola, 1996; Camotim et al., 2008; Davies, 2000; Silva et al., 2008), pioneered by Schardt, has been developed extensively. Recently, a new approach has been proposed, i.e., the constrained Finite Strip Method (cFSM) (Adany and Schafer, 2006a,b, 2008; Dinis et al., 2007; Schafer, 2006). These two alternative modal approaches to analyze the elastic buckling behavior have been compared in the papers by Adany et al. (2006, 2007, 2008). In the current decade, in numerous publications (Adany and Schafer, 2006a,b, 2008; Adany et al., 2006, 2007, 2008; Basaglia et al., 2008; Camotim et al., 2008; Dinis et al., 2007; Schafer, 2006; Silva et al., 2008) attention has been paid to the global axial mode, which is considered only in the theoretical aspect in linear issues, that is to say, in critical loads. Adany and Schafer (2006a) have said that it should be noted that this axial mode is a theoretically possible buckling mode, even though it has little practical importance. In the axial extension mode, longitudinal displacements of the cross-section dominate and this mode can be referred to as the shortening one (Fig. 1). The axial mode is symmetric with respect to the cross-section axis of symmetry and it is symmetric with respect to the axis of overall bending. In the present study, an attempt to dispute with the statement included in the paper by Adany and Schafer (2006a, 2008) has been

Fig. 1. Longitudinal displacement distributions of the axial mode of the channel.

undertaken and attention has been focused on an interaction of the global exural mode of buckling with the global axial extension mode in the rst order nonlinear approximation of Koiters theory. The present study is based on the numerical method of the transition matrix using Godunovs orthogonalization. Instead of the nite strip method, the exact transition matrix method is used in this case. A plate model of the column has been adopted in the study to describe global buckling, which leads to lowering the theoretical value of the limit load. In this case, the buckling characteristics for the independent global mode is nonsymmetric, and thus the equilibrium is unsteady (Kolakowski and Kowal-Michalska, 1999; Kolakowski and Krolak, 1995, 2006; Kolakowski and Teter, 2000; Kolakowski, 1987, 1989a,b, 1993a; Kolakowski et al., 1999; Krolak and Kolakowski, 1995; Krolak et al., 2001; Teter and Kolakowski, 2004). In the solution obtained, an interaction between all the walls of structures being taken into account, effects of an interaction of certain modes having the same wavelength, a shear lag phenomenon and also an effect of cross-sectional distortions are included. The distortion instability of the channel is investigated using the nonlinear theory. The solution method has been partially presented in the paper by Kolakowski and Krolak (2006).

Fig. 2. Prismatic plate structure and the local co-ordinate system.

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2. Formulation of the problem A cross-section of the structure composed of a few plates is presented in Fig. 2 together with the local Cartesian systems of coordinates. A long prismatic thin-walled channel built of panels connected along longitudinal edges has been considered. The channel is simply supported at its ends. In order to account for all modes of global, local and coupled buckling, a plate model of thin-walled structures has been assumed. The material is assumed to obey Hookes law. For each plate component, precise geometrical relationships are assumed in order to enable the consideration of both out-of-plane and in-plane bending of the ith plate (Kolakowski and Krolak, 2006):

exi ui;x 1 w2 v 2 u2 i;x i;x i;x 2 eyi v i;y 1 w2 u2 v 2 i;y i;y i;y 2 2exyi cxyi ui;y v i;x wi;x wi;y ui;x ui;y v i;x v i;y
and

jxi wi;xx ; jyi wi;yy ; jxyi 2wi;xy

where ui, vi, wi components of the displacement vector of the ith plate along the xi, yi, zi axis direction, respectively, and the plane xi yi overlaps the central plane before its buckling. In the majority of publications devoted to stability of structures, the terms v 2 u2 ; u2 v 2 and (ui,xui,y + vi,xvi,y) are neglected i;x i;x i;y i;y for exi, eyi, cxyi = 2exyi, respectively, in the strain tensor components (1). When the full tensor of membrane strains (1) exi, eyi, cxyi = 2exyi is taken into account, an analysis of all buckling modes, including the axial extension mode, can be carried out. The main limitation of the assumed theory lies in an assumption of linear relationships between curvatures (2) and second derivatives of the displacement w (discussed in detail in, e.g., Opoka and Pietraszkiewicz (2004) and Pietraszkiewicz (1989)). In such an approach, nite displacements and small rotations are considered. The equations of stability of thin-walled structures have been derived using a variational method (Kolakowski and Krolak, 2006). The differential equations of equilibrium have the following form:

the axial mode is taken into consideration, it is assumed in the present paper that the absolute maximum value of any component of the displacement eld of the nth mode is equal to the rst plate thickness h1. The zero approximation describes the pre-buckling state, whereas the rst order approximation, being the linear problem of stability, allows for determination of values of critical loads, buckling modes, and initial post-buckling equilibrium paths. The obtained system of homogeneous ordinary differential equations, with the corresponding conditions of the co-operation of walls, has been solved by the transition matrix method, having integrated numerically the equilibrium equations along the circumferential direction in order to obtain the relationships between the state vectors on two longitudinal edges. During the integration of the equations, Godunovs orthogonalization method was employed. For a more detailed analysis of the solution in the rst nonlinear approximation, see the papers by Kolakowski and KowalMichalska (1999), Kolakowski and Krolak (2006), Kolakowski et al. (1999), Krolak et al. (2001) and Teter and Kolakowski (2004, 2005). The solutions for components of the displacement elds for the pre-buckling (zero) and rst order assumed in the paper by Kolakowski and Krolak (2006) are presented in Appendix. If the components of membrane forces and displacements within the rst order approximation are taken into account, a shear lag phenomenon and distortions of cross-sections can be considered then. At the point where the load parameter k reaches its maximum value ks (secondary bifurcation or limit points) for the imperfect structure with regard to the imperfection of the buckling mode with the amplitude f , the Jacobian of the nonlinear system of r equations (for example Byskov and Hutchinson (1977) and Byskov (19871988)):

  k k f aijr fj fk f 1 kr r kr r

at r 1; 2; . . . ; N

Nxi;x Nxyi;y fNxi ui;x ;x Nyi ui;y ;y N xyi ui;x ;y Nxyi ui;y ;x g 0 Nxyi;x Nyi;y fNxi v i;x ;x N yi v i;y ;y Nxyi v i;x ;y Nxyi v i;y ;x g 0 M xi;xx M yi;yy 2M xyi;xy Nxi wi;x ;x Nyi wi;y ;y Nxyi wi;x ;y Nxyi wi;y ;x 0 3
As has been mentioned above, after expanding the elds of displacements U and the elds of sectional forces N into a power series with respect to the mode amplitudes fn (the dimensionless amplitude of the nth mode), Koiters asymptotic theory has been employed:

is equal to zero. The critical stress rr = krDE (at r = 1, 2, . . .) instead of the load parameter kr, D is the actual loading, E is the Young modulus and the load carrying capacity rs = ksDE is used in the paper. The expressions for aijr are calculated with the known formulae (Byskov and Hutchinson, 1977; Byskov, 19871988; Kolakowski and Kowal-Michalska, 1999; Moellmann and Goltermann, 1989). The formulae for the post-buckling coefcients aijrdepend only on the buckling modes. The result of the integration along xi indicates that the postbuckling coefcients aijr are zero when the sum of the wave numbers associated with the three modes (mi + mj + mr) is even. 3. Analysis of the calculation results 3.1. Eigenvalue problems critical stresses and buckling modes A detailed analysis of the calculations is conducted for the compressed channel with the following dimensions of its cross-section (Fig. 3) (Adany et al., 2007):

U kU i fn U i N
0 kNi
0

n n

fn N i
0

b1 150 mm; b2 60 mm; b3 15 mm; h1 h2 h3 2 mm

Each plate is made of steel characterized by the following mechanical properties: E = 210 GPa, m = 0.3. Fig. 4 presents plots of the critical stresses rr as a function of the column length on the assumption that one buckling halfwave occurs along this length. In this gure, the respective notations for the curves corresponding to the assumption of the following conditions: S - symmetry, A antisymmetry of the buckling mode on the cross-section symmetry axis are used. For global buckling

where U i ; N i are the pre-buckling state elds (the zero approxin n mation), and U i ; N i the nth mode elds for the ith plate. The range of indices is [1, N], where N stands for the number of interacting modes. In all earlier publications by the authors and theirs co-workers, it was assumed that all the modes were normalized so that the maximum normal displacement of component plates of the nth mode was equal to the rst plate thickness h1. Due to the fact that

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Z. Kolakowski, K. Kowal-Michalska / International Journal of Solids and Structures 48 (2011) 119125 Table 2 Critical stresses r5 and ratios of maximum values of displacements for the axial mode. (mm)

r5(m = 1)
(MPa) 80,212 80,212 80,212 80,211 80,211 80,208 80,175 80,175 80,147 80,051 79,526 81,205

jvmax/umaxj () 0.000397 0.00932 0.00522 0.00784 0.0177 0.0196 0.0875 0.0527 0.0797 0.166 0.238 0.251

jwmax/umaxj () 0.000397 0.00854 0.00522 0.00835 0.0170 0.0196 0.140 0.0646 0.179 0.414 0.566 0.406

5 jN x max j (N/mm)

00,000 10,000 7500 5000 2500 2000 1000 750 500 250 200 100 Fig. 3. Geometry of the channel.

16.3 163 217 326 652 815 1627 2171 3250 6422 7861 15,822

In Table 1 values of critical loads rr for four lengths of the channel under investigation are shown. In the last column, values of critical loads for the axial mode, which is identical for all the lengths considered, are collected. In Table 2 values of critical stresses r5 corresponding to the axial mode in a wide range of the length variability (100 6 6 100,000 mm), which are practically the same for the whole range, are given. The table includes also the maximum values of in-plane stress resultants N 5 and the ratios of maximum x max values of displacement components for each mode, i.e.,      5  5 5  5  v max =umax   jv max =umax j and wmax =umax   jwmax =umax j. The maximum values of displacement components umax, vmax, wmax for a particular column length can appear in different points of the channel cross-section. It should be emphasized that the displacements u(5) do not alter their sign for the cross-section at x = const. For the channel whose length is 2000 6 6 100,000 mm, the maximum displacements in the cross-section plane (i.e., v(5), w(5)) are equal to approx. 2% of the longitudinal displacements (i.e., u(5)) at most. The displacements u(5) are practically constant for the cross-section at x = const. Thus, this mode can be called the pure axial extension mode for the range of the channel length variability under analysis. Displacement components of axial modes for the cross-section of the channel for three lengths (i.e. = 10,000,1000, 100 [mm]) are shown in Fig. 5. Fig. 6 presents plots of in-plane stress resultant N 5 distributions for the same three lengths. As can be easily seen, x the values of N 5 grow with a decrease in the length for the range x under analysis. For shorter channels (i.e., for < 2000 mm), displacements in the cross-section plane increase and play a more and more important role. For the length 100 6 6 250 mm, this effect is considerable and equal up to approx. 50%. This mode can be referred to as the extension transversal mode. In this study, the displacements have been normalized in such a way that the maximum component of the displacement corresponding to the given mode is equal to the thickness h1 of the rst component plate. For the axial mode, the displacements are equal 5 to the thickness h1 (that is to say, umax u5 h1 ).

Fig. 4. Plots of the critical stresses rr as a function of the channel length .

modes, the imposed symmetry conditions of the buckling mode correspond to exural or exuraldistortional buckling, whereas the antisymmetry conditions entail exuraltorsional or exural torsionaldistortional buckling (Kolakowski, 1989b, 1993a). Local buckling modes correspond to a short channel (i.e., for < 600 mm). A very good agreement of the results with the results presented in the paper by Adany et al. (2007) has been attained. In order to consider a possible effect of the localized buckling (Byskov, 19871988; Dubina, 1996) for the assumed length , a global exural mode (m = 1), a exuraltorsional mode (m = 1) and higher global modes: a exural and exuraltorsional mode, respectively, with the halfwave number m = 3, have been analyzed. The axial extension mode (for m = 1) has been considered in the analysis as well. The following index symbols have been introduced: 1 exural mode for m = 1; 2 exuraltorsional mode for m = 1; 3 exural mode for m = 3; 4 exuraltorsional mode for m = 3; 5 axial mode for m = 1.

Table 1 Critical stresses rr for the channel. (mm) 10,000 7500 5000 2500

r1(m = 1) (MPa)
10.69 19.00 42.69 167.88

r2(m = 1) (MPa)
22.06 28.62 45.92 136.67

r3(m = 3) (MPa)
95.54 167.88 353.15 394.76

r4(m = 3) (MPa)
83.92 136.67 284.82 849.40

r5(m = 1) (MPa)
80,212 80,212 80,211 80,211

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Detailed results of the interactive buckling analysis are presented in Table 3 for a channel with the cross-section shown in Fig. 3. The following nine variants of the imperfections are assumed:                 1. f 1000h1 ; f 1000h1 ; f 3000h1 ; f 3000h1 ; f 0:0; 1 2 3 4 5         2. f 1000h1 ; f 0; f 3000h1 ; f 0; f 0:0; 1 2 3 4 5         3. f 0; f 1000h1 ; f 0; f 3000h1 ; f 0:0; 1 2 3 4 5     4. f1 1000h1 ; f2 0; f3 0; f4 0; f5 0:0;     5. f 0; f 1000h1 ; f 0; f 0; f 0:0; 1 2 3 4 5         6. f 1000h1 ; f 1000h1 ; f 0:0; f 0:0; f 0:0; 1 2 3 4 5 7. f j1:0j; f j1:0j; f 0:0; f 0:0; f 0:0; 1 2 3 4 5 8. f j1:0j; f 0:0; f 0:0; f 0:0; f 0:0; 1 2 3 4 5
Fig. 5. Displacement components three lengths.

shape l=100 l=1000 l=10000

v(5), w(5) for the cross-section of the channel for

9. f 0:0; f j1:0j; f 0:0; f 0:0; f 0:0: 1 2 3 4 5

shape l=100 l=1000 l=10000

Fig. 6. Plots of the in-plane stress resultants N 5 for three lengths. x

3.2. Interactive buckling Further calculations have been conducted for four lengths of the column, namely: = 10,000, 7500, 5000, 2500 mm. The lengths have been selected as to make the values of global critical stresses (i.e., for m = 1) lower than local critical loads, which enables an analysis of the column buckling within the rst order approximation. An interaction of buckling modes can occur among several buckling modes that are symmetric with respect to the symmetry axis of the cross-section and also between a symmetric mode and pairs of antisymmetric modes (Ali and Sridharan, 1988; Benito and Sridharan, 19841985; Kolakowski, 1987, 1989a,b, 1993a).

In each case, the signs of the imperfection f (where i = 1, 2, . . .) i have been selected in the most unfavorable way, that is to say, as to obtain the lowest theoretical load-carrying capability rs for the given level of imperfection when an interaction of buckling modes is accounted for. The modes under consideration can be identied according to the adopted index symbols. Table 3 shows the theoretical load-carrying capacity rs/rmin (where rmin = min(r1, r2, . . .)) for an interaction of ve or four modes for the assumed variants of imperfections. The following notations are employed in the table: 5MA for the ve-mode approach (including the axial mode), 4MA for the four-mode approach without the axial mode. As can be easily seen, when the axial mode is considered in the interaction, then the theoretical load-carrying capacity is decreased if compared to the four-mode approach. Obviously, the magnitude of rs/rmin for the given length depends on the level of imperfections and their combinations. In Table 4 the theoretical load carrying capacity where an interaction of three or two modes is considered is presented as well. For the three-mode approach (3MA), the modes denoted by indices: 1, 3, 5 are analyzed, whereas for the two-mode approach (2MA), modes: 1, 5 are accounted for. Only two variants of imperfections, i.e., 4 and 8, are considered. The table includes the ratio rs/rmin = rs/r1, where r1 corresponds to the global exural buckling mode for the length = 10,000, 7500, 5000, 2500 mm. For the length = 2500 mm, the value rs/r2 is additionally given in brackets, because in this case r2 < r1 (compare Table 1). A comparison of the results presented in Tables 3 and 4 allows one to state that when the axial mode is accounted for in the interaction, then the theoretical load carrying-capacity rsis decreased considerably, in particular for longer columns (compare, for instance, variant 4 of the imperfection for 5MA, 3MA, 2MA and 4MA). A decrease in the load-carrying capacity rs/rmin (where rmin = min(ri); i = 1, . . ., 5) does not exceed 40% for the ve-mode approach (see Table 3) in practice. It follows from this comparison that the consideration of the axial mode in the interaction is necessary as it results in a visible decrease in the theoretical load-carrying capacity in the rst order approximation. The two nonlinear coefcients of system of Eq. (5), namely: a111 and a511, exert the main inuence on a decrease in the load rs.

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Table 3 Theoretical load carrying capacity for the 5-mode (5MA) and 4-mode (4MA) approach. Imperfection variant

rs/rmin
= 10,000 5MA 4MA 0.9044 0.9449 0.9911 0.9469 0.9947 0.9724 0.9949 0.9994 0.7942 = 7500 5MA 0.6697 0.6801 0.9257 0.6841 0.9494 0.8459 0.8492 0.9943 0.6768 4MA 0.8744 0.9339 0.9789 0.9362 0.9889 0.9730 0.9813 0.9992 0.8919 = 5000 5MA 0.6658 0.7415 0.7619 0.7444 0.7686 0.8107 0.8488 0.8836 0.6793 4MA 0.7374 0.8698 0.8123 0.8778 0.8177 0.8624 0.9327 0.9117 0.7554 = 2500 5MA 0.7449 0.9124 0.7924 0.8203 0.7955 0.7882 0.9400 0.8198 0.7591 4MA 0.7843 0.9230 0.8323 0.9382 0.8355 0.8244 0.9490 0.8554 0.7998

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

0.6255 0.6307 0.9522 0.6355 0.9649 0.8488 0.8492 0.9967 0.6315

Table 4 Theoretical load carrying capacity for the 3-mode (3MA) and 2-mode (2MA) approach. Imperfection variant

rs/rmin
= 10,000 3MA 2MA 0.6369 0.8495 = 7500 3MA 0.6841 0.8492 2MA 0.6852 0.8495 = 5000 3MA 0.7444 0.8488 2MA 0.7455 0.8492 = 2500 3MA 1.0078 (0.8203) 1.0347 (0.8422) 2MA 1.0121 (0.8238) 1.0384 (0.8452)

4 7

0.6355 0.8492

In the case the plate model of the column is employed to describe the global buckling, the coefcient a111 0. It leads to lowering the theoretical limit load in comparison to the case when the beam model of the column is assumed because the postcritical characteristics for the uncoupled Euler mode is unstable. In principle, the coefcient a111that characterizes the initial postcritical behavior for the global Euler buckling is comparatively low. The key role in an interaction of buckling modes is played by the coefcient a511, i.e., the term a511 f5 f2 of the third order in the 1 expression for potential energy. It is related to the term r(5) L2(U(1)) (following the notations in the papers, for example, by Byskov and Hutchinson (1977), Byskov (19871988), Kolakowski and Kowal-Michalska (1999) and Kolakowski and Krolak (2006)). This term is the volume integral over the structure of the product of stress r(5) associated with the axial mode and the term representing the midsurface strain L2(U(1)). The integral tends to vanish unless the longitudinal wave lengths (e.g., a number of halfwaves m) are the same. The longitudinal displacements u(5) of the axial mode are of the same order as the displacements w(1) for the global (Euler) mode due to the assumed conditions for 5 1 the mode normalization (i.e., umax wmax ). In the theory of thin plates, we always have w(i) ) u(j) for i j, apart from an interaction of the global mode with the axial mode analyzed in this study. It makes the coefcient a511 play such a key role in the rst order approximation. Thus, it can be stated that the most dangerous mode in the nonlinear problem may not comply with the linear analysis and maximum values of the coefcients aijr should be determined on the basis of the rst nonlinear approximation. 4. Conclusion In the study, special attention has been focused on the coupled buckling of the Euler global mode of buckling with the axial mode in the rst approximation of Koiters theory. It is probably the rst study, to the authors knowledge in the world literature, devoted to an interaction of buckling with the axial mode. This problem can be of great signicance and it requires further investigations. According to the authors opinion, a further analysis of interactive buckling ought to include an interaction of the axial mode with

global and local modes. Therefore, interactive buckling should be further analyzed and comprehensively and thoroughly discussed. Acknowledgement This publications is a result of the investigations carried out within the project subsidized over the years 20092011 by the state funds designated for scientic research (Ministry for Science and Higher Education project N N501 113636). Appendix A The pre-buckling solution to the ith composite panel consisting of homogenous elds is assumed as (Eq. (17) in the paper by Kolakowski and Krolak (2006)):

ui

=2 xi Di A1 0

v 0 yi Di K 12i =K 22i i
0 wi

where Di is the actual loading. This loading of the zero state is specied as the product of a unit loading and a scalar load factor Di. The rst order solutions can be formulated as follows (Eq. (19) in the paper by Kolakowski and Krolak (2006)):
n n n uik ni ; gi  i ni ; gi C i gi cos mpbi ni c n n  v n ; g  d n ; g Dn g sin mpbi ni i i i n wi ni ; i

g 

i i in ni ; e

gi

i i n Ei i sin mpbi ni

A2

where

ni xi =bi ;
References

gi yi =bi

A3

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