Efficiency and accuracy of linearized postbuckling analyses of frames based on elastica (Q1117746)

The efficiency, accuracy and ease in use of linearized stability analyses for establishing the postbuckling response of rigid jointed frames is discussed using as a model a simple rectangular frame. This is accomplished by comparing a variety of results of the linearized stability analyses with those of the exact elastica analysis the governing equations of which appear for the first time in the technical literature; important conclusions on the accuracy and range of applicability of the foregoing linearized stability analyses are drawn. It is found that the completely linearized stability analysis, corresponding to a linear boundary-value problem, furnishes very reliable results which are quite near to those of the widely used nonlinear kinematic stability analysis and much more accurate than those of the standard (incompressible) elastica; thus the former analysis, being the simplest possible postbuckling analysis, constitutes, for structural design purposes the most powerful method for determining the initial postbuckling response of frames.