AN EXPERIMENTAL-VERIFICATION OF THE GENERALIZED BEAM THEORY APPLIED TO INTERACTIVE BUCKLING PROBLEMS

Previous papers (Refs 1-4) have presented a method of analysis for any open unbranched thin walled section considering both rigid body movem ent and cross section distortion (including local buckling). Reference 1 described how the Generalized Beam Theory (GBT) can be used to calc ulate generalized section properties for all modes, including each of the four rigid body modes and the distortional modes. The additional s ection properties evolved from GBT were then used in Ref. 2 to conside r second order elastic critical buckling problems. This paper compares the critical buckling predictions of GBT with the results obtained in two series of tests carried out on lipped and unlipped channels subje ct to a major axis bending moment. These predictions are then combined with the yield criteria of EC3 to allow a comparison with the analysi s of these tests carried out by Lindner and Aschinger (Ref. 5). The pa per concludes that the Generalized Theory is a powerful and effective analysis tool for the solution of interactive buckling problems where both local and overall buckling can occur.