Localization of the bending response in presence of axial load

In this paper, we study the effect of a small misplacement on the deflectio n response of the two-span column that is subjected to transverse loading. Whereas the buckling modes of such and other structures have been investiga ted thoroughly in the literature, the authors tend not to investigate the m ost important quantity, namely, the column's response. This gap is attempte d to be filled by the present study. It is remarkable that a 3% misplacemen t may lead to a five-fold enhancement of the response, and thus, location i mperfections cannot be overlooked for safe design. (C) 2000 Published by El sevier Science Ltd.