DESIGN OF LATERAL BRACES FOR COLUMNS CONSIDERING CRITICAL IMPERFECTION OF BUCKLING

J. TAKAGI, M. OHSAKI
2004 International Journal of Structural Stability and Dynamics  
The present paper discusses design of column-type structures, which are composed of columns and lateral braces attached perpendicular to the columns. Buckling of the braces of this kind of structures directly leads to global buckling of the columns. The brace-buckling modes are successfully detected by considering higher-order geometrically non-linear relations and by introducing Green's strain into the total potential energy of the structure. Sensitivity analysis of the eigenvalues of the
more » ... nt stiffness matrix under fixed load condition is carried out with respect to imperfections of the nodal locations. Furthermore, the critical imperfection that most drastically reduces the eigenvalues are calculated and buckling loads of the imperfect systems are evaluated. The numerical results show that the second or higher eigenmode of the tangent stiffness matrix of the perfect system should be sometimes used for estimating the buckling load of the imperfect system. Design examples are presented using the proposed method, and they are compared with those in accordance with an allowable-stress design standard. The results show a possibility to reduce the brace sections.
doi:10.1142/s0219455404001136 fatcat:i7mu4fjj6fc5nipw6w6exmacam