Influence of Bracings on the Stability of Columns

This article analyzes the stability of columns composed of deformable bars, with the particular goal of studying the influence of bracings. The bars are assumed to be deformable by bending, axial forces, shearing forces, and torsion. A computer program has been developed to determine the critical loading of the structure by taking into account geometric nonlinearity. The stiffness matrix technique is used to describe the structural response in three dimensions. Global instability is considered to have been achieved when a given loading introduces singularities in the global stiffness matrix. When the critical loading has been determined, it is possible to determine global instability parameters such as effective buckling coefficients. An example is presented and compared to ANSYS results to demonstrate the potential of the process.