Introduction

Ideally, a perfectly straight strut, when subjected to a purely compressive load, would compress and

not buckle. Buckling is therefore the result of imperfections that prevent the load from being applied

perfectly axially; e.g. from eccentric loading and lack of initial straightness.

Principles

Figure 1: Column with pinned ends.

The bending moment at any section, M= -Pv , when inserted into the equation for the elastic
behaviour of a beam , Elv” =M, yields

𝑑2 𝑣
𝐸𝐼 + 𝑝𝑣
𝑑𝑥 2

The solution of this differential equation is

𝑃 𝑃
𝑣 = 𝑐1 sin √ 𝑥 + 𝑐2 cos √ 𝑥
𝐸𝐼 𝐸𝐼
Where the constant of integration, c1 and c2 , are determine from the end conditions:

v(0) =v(L) =).From v(0) =0, we find that c2=0 . Substituting the second condition into equation

above, we obtain;

𝑃
𝑐1 sin √ 𝐿=0
𝐸𝐼

It must be concluded that either c1 = 0 , in which case v = 0 for all x and the column remains straight

𝑃
regardless of load, or sin √𝐸𝐼 𝐿 = 0 .The case c1=0 corresponding to the conditions of no buckling

and yields a trivial solution. It is satisfied if

𝑃
𝑐1 sin √ 𝐿 = 𝑛𝜋 n=1,2....
𝐸𝐼

The value of P ascertained from the equation above, that is , the load for which the column may be
maintained in a deflected shape, is the critical load.

𝑛2 𝜋 2 𝐸𝐼
(𝑃𝑐𝑟 ) =
𝐿2

Where, L represents the original length of the column. Assume that column deflect is in no way
restricted to a particular plane, the deflection may be expected to occur about an axis through the
centroid for which the second moment of area is minimum. The lowest critical load or Euler
buckling load of the pin-ended column is of greatest interest; for n=1,

𝜋 2 𝐸𝐼
𝑃𝑐𝑟 = 2
𝐿