STUDY ON FLEXURAL-TORSIONAL BUCKLING LOAD OF CIRCULAR ARCHES

In this paper the stability equations are obtained according to the classical equilibrium theory, and the out-of-plane elastic flexural-torsional buckling loads of a two-hinged circular arch under uniform compression and uniform bending are studied accordingly. The parameters such as the warping stiffness and loading position are involved in the derivation and analysis. In the derivation proper approximations are adopted and make the process more explicit and compact. Buckling loads for a pure compressive arch under three different forms of uniform radial loads are discussed; meanwhile theoretical solutions are compared with FEA results. It indicates that the buckling load of a pure compressive arch under hydrostatic load is the highest of the three, and the solutions for two-hinged circular arches developed in this paper are close to the numerical ones of FEA.