Lateral buckling of thin-walled members with openings considering shear lag

The classical theory of thin-walled members is unable to reflect the shear lag phenomenon since it is based on the assumption of no shearing strains in the middle surface of the walls. In this paper, an energy equation for the lateral buckling of thin-walled members has been derived which includes the effects of torsion, warping and, especially, the shearing strains which reflect the shear lag phenomenon. A numerical analysis for the lateral buckling of thin-walled members with openings by using Galerkin`s method of weighted residuals has been presented. The proposed numerical values and the predictions by experiment for the lateral buckling loads are to agree closely in the paper. The results from these comparisons show that the proposed method here is capable of predicting the lateral buckling of thin-walled members with openings. The fast convergence of the results indicates the numerical stability of the method. By the study, a very complex practical eigenvalue problem is transformed into a very simple one of solving only a linear equation with one variable.