LOCAL BUCKLING IN THREE-DIMENSIONAL FRAMES: EXPERIMENTATION AND SIMPLIFIED ANALYSIS

Abstract

BIDIRECTIONAL LOADING EXPERIMENT TESTS ARE CARRIED OUT TO EXAMINE THE BEHAVIOR OF THIN-WALLED CIRCULAR AND RECTANGULAR STEEL ELEMENTS AND A THREE-DIMENSIONAL FRAMED STRUCTURE. THE EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS WERE USED TO CONFIRM THE VALIDITY OF THE LUMPED DAMAGE MECHANICAL APPROACH TO MODEL THE POST-LOCAL BUCKLING STRUCTURAL BEHAVIOR. IN THIS APPROACH LOCAL BUCKLING IS LUMPED AT PLASTIC HINGES. THE DEGREE OF LOCAL BUCKLING IS REPRESENTED BY A VECTOR DAMAGE VARIABLE. IT IS DESCRIBED THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE MODEL IN A FINITE ELEMENT PROGRAM.