PREBUCKLING DEFORMATIONS AND FLEXURAL-TORSIONAL BUCKLING OF ARCHES

When the ratio of the minor axis flexural stiffness to the major axis flexural stiffness is not small, classical analysis may lead to an ina ccurate prediction of the flexural-torsional buckling loads of an arch , because prebuckling in-plane deformations change the curvature of th e arch. A systematic treatment of the effects of prebuckling in-plane deformations an the elastic buckling of monosymmetric arches is presen ted in this paper. Nonlinear relationships between the displacements a nd the strains are obtained using position vectors. Energy equations a re formulated for the elastic flexural-torsional buckling of monosymme tric arches, which include the effects of prebuckling in-plane deforma tions, and closed-form solutions are obtained for arches in uniform be nding. The effect of the arch slenderness on flexural-torsional buckli ng is investigated. Comparisons with the existing theoretical solution s are made.