Buckling of elastic structures under tensile loads

Abstract

Typically, structures fail due to buckling if loaded by compression. However, it is important to notice that-especially in lightweight structures-there are several situations in which instabilities, such as buckling or wrinkling, can be observed under tensile loads. In the present paper, a number of problems, dealing with buckling under tensile loads, are presented. Some solutions already contained in former papers of the author are reconsidered, compared to recent results, and extended. Further new results are presented. Bifurcation buckling under tensile loading of beams, plates (with and without cut-outs), rolled metal strips, thin cell walls of metal foams, and of thin metallic films on polymer substrates is treated in this paper. It is made clear that in all cases of buckling under tensile loads eventually compressive stresses are responsible for the loss of stability. Thus, one should carefully differentiate between "buckling under tension" and "buckling under tensile loads". Nonconservative loads as well as material instabilities under tension, such as necking, are not considered in this paper.

Tensile Buckling of a Rod with an End Moving along a Circular Guide: Improved Experimental Investigation Based on a Dynamic Approach

“…The design of the test setup and the methods for determining the investigated system parameters and the critical force allow testing of other systems which include a tensile or compressed element and an end that slides along a curved trajectory [8,20]. A theoretically investigated system that includes a rigid tensile rod and rotation springs at its ends [8] can be tested without changing the design of the bench.…”

“…The theoretically investigated system [21], the so-called Ziegler's beam [20], includes a stretchable elastic element on two hinged supports, one of which can move in the longitudinal direction. An additional rigid rod is rigidly fixed to the movable end of the elastic rod and is loaded by a force that has a constant direction when the rod is rotated.…”

“…With this arrangement, the wheel spokes act as a rigid rod. This avoids the possibility of contact between the compressed curved element and the rigid rod [20], since they are in different planes. To create a force that acts in a constant direction, a weight load can be used.…”

Numerical Simulation of Buckling and Post-Buckling Behavior of a Central Notched Thin Aluminum Foil with Nonlinearity in Consideration

“…Due to the finite size of plates, they defined a correction factor for maximum compressive stress and compared the analytical solution with numerical results obtained with the finite element method and some experimental works. Rammerstorfer [21] studied bifurcation buckling under tensile loading for different structures, including beams, plates with and without holes, rolled metal strips, thin cell walls of foams, and some metal/polymer laminates. He concluded that in all of these structures, buckling occurs due to the existence of compression stresses.…”

Increase in buckling loads of plates by introduction of cutouts

“…The, in general, expected negative effect of cutouts is even more pronounced when the cutouts are large enough to effectuate local buckling. Such local instabilities are the reason why the critical tensile load for buckling of stretched plates is drastically reduced even by relatively small cutouts, see [10].…”