LOADING ARRANGEMENT AND STRUCTURE, AS ONE SYSTEM TEMPORARY INSTABILITY OF ELEMENTS AND STRUCTURE

The paper deals with some special questions of experimental research b eing important when frames are tested and the load carrying capacity o f the structure is lost because of any instability phenomena. Computer simulation results are presented: to illustrate the difference betwee n the real and 'virtual' structural behaviour, which is dependent on t he character of loading, and to show that in certain conditions a stru cture, which became unstable because of the instability of one of its elements, is able to turn to a stable state and to carry increasing lo ads before complete loss of its load carrying capacity. This paper is a modified (slightly extended) version of that which was presented dur ing the 'First International Conference on Coupled Instabilities in Me tal Structures'. Reflections of participants initiated some modificati on.