Buckling analysis of non-prismatic columns based

on modied vibration modes

A.R. Rahai
*
, S. Kazemi
Department of Civil Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), No. 424 Hafez Avenue,
Tehran 15875-4413, Iran
Received 19 February 2006; received in revised form 16 July 2006; accepted 12 September 2006
Available online 22 December 2006
Abstract
In this paper, a new procedure is formulated for the buckling analysis of tapered column members. The calculation of
the buckling loads was carried out by using modied vibrational mode shape (MVM) and energy method. The change of
stiness within a column is characterized by introducing a tapering index. It is shown that, the changes in the vibrational
mode shapes of a tapered column can be represented by considering a linear combination of various modes of uniform-
section columns. As a result, by making use of these modied mode shapes (MVM) and applying the principle of station-
ary total potential energy, the buckling load of tapered columns can be obtained. Several numerical examples on tapered
columns demonstrate the accuracy and eciency of the proposed analytical method.
2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Buckling; Tapered column; Dynamic equation of motion; Energy method; Buckling eigen-vector; Vibrational eigen-vector
1. Introduction
A substantial increase in critical buckling loads of columns may be obtained by appropriate moment of
inertia distribution along its length. These tapered columns are widely used as slender structural members
of high-rise building, bridges, oshore structures, marine, aerospace industries and etc. The increasing use
is due to appropriate distribution of strength and weight, which helps to achieve an ecient and reliable design
and sometimes satisfy the functional requirements so that the steel consumption can be reduced as much as
possible. In the viewpoint of structural and optimal design, evaluation of buckling loads of stepped columns,
which have the same volume with specic span length, is of great importance.
In order to avoid the catastrophic failure in stepped columns it is desirable to investigate their buckling
loads. These types of columns are often subjected to axial compressive forces, which makes them prone to
local instability. Presence of stepped parts in these types of columns will result in changes in the stress distri-
bution within the member and consequently a reduction in the buckling capacity of the column.
1007-5704/$ - see front matter 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.cnsns.2006.09.009
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 21 6646 8055; fax: +98 21 6641 3969.
E-mail addresses: Rahai@aut.ac.ir (A.R. Rahai), s_kazemi@aut.ac.ir (S. Kazemi).
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation 13 (2008) 17211735
www.elsevier.com/locate/cnsns
On the other hand, existence of non-uniform section within these structures leads to changes in dynamic
characteristics of the structure such as the vibration responses, mode shapes, and the natural frequencies.
Therefore, using stiness changes within a column and inuence of higher vibration modes of uniform-section
columns can result in the vibration mode shapes of tapered column. Based on the similarities that exist
between the buckling and vibrational modes, a procedure is given to use vibrational modes instead of buckling
mode shapes. Thus, the buckling load of tapered column can be achieved by substituting the vibrational
modes in the energy method.
For the estimation of exact buckling loads of columns several theories are proposed over the past years
[1,2]. The implementation of energy method in the stability of columns is discussed by Chen and Lui [2]
and the dynamic behaviour of columns are described by Meirovitch [3].
Some researches have been directed towards the study of initial local buckling of tapered columns subjected
to compressive loads. Girijavallabhan used the nite dierence method for evaluating the buckling loads of
non-uniform columns [4]. Just [5] and Karabalis [6] used direct integral approach to establish the stiness
equation of a tapered beam element for stability analysis of structures composed of tapered beams. Coulter
and Miller developed the buckling and vibration of tapered plane beams subjected to distributed axial force
Nomenclature
A area of cross-section
C
i
, B
i
arbitrary coecient
d(EI) tapering function, variation in primary stiness in various part of column
dm change in primary mass distribution in stepped part of column
dy
i
taper-induced change in ith mode shape of a uniform section column
E Youngs modulus of elasticity
f(x, i) external force
G shear modulus of the material
I
0
, I moment of inertia of cross-sectional area
L length of column
L
i
length of stepped parts
m mass function per unit length of column
M number of superimposed modes
P
cr
critical buckling load of column
r radius of gyration of the column cross-section
t time
U strain energy
W
e
external work done by edge loading
x, y Cartesian coordinate
y(x, t) exural deection
y
i
, y
j
, y
k
the ith, jth, and kth mode shape of uniform-section column
(y
t
)
i
the ith mode shape of tapered column
X
i
, X
j
, X
k
the ith, jth, and kth natural frequencies of uniform-section column
q mass density per unit volume
a
ij
eect of jth mode shape of uniform section column on the ith mode shape of the corresponding
tapered column
d
ij
Kronecker symbol
dP rst variation of total potential energy
f tapered size parameter
w stiness ratio
j constant depends on the cross-sectional shape
P total potential energy
1722 A.R. Rahai, S. Kazemi / Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation 13 (2008) 17211735
[7]. Bradford and Cuk used general cubic polynomial shape function approach to achieve elastic buckling load
of tapered monosymmetric I-beams [8]. Frieman and Kosmatka presented an exact stiness matrix of a non-
uniform beam based on the exibilitystiness transformation approach. They included shear deformation
eects in bending stiness matrix of tapered members, so that it could be applied to BernoulliEuler and Tim-
oshenko beam [9,10]. Rajasekaran studied the instability of tapered thin-walled beams of generic open section
using the updated Lagrangian approach [11,12]. Kim et al. developed an inelastic buckling analysis of tapered
members using the virtual forces approach [13]. Al-Gahtani in his research program utilized boundary integral
approach to obtain the exact stiness of tapered members [14]. Dube and Dumir employed the polynomial
series approach for buckling and vibrational analysis of tapered thin open section beams on elastic founda-
tion. They also presented exact solutions for the coupled exuraltorsional axial buckling loads of tapered
beams with a thin-walled open section resting on an elastic foundation [15,16].
Gupta et al. focused on lateraltorsional buckling of non-prismatic I-beam. They also developed a method
to obtain the fundamental frequencies of the tapered cantilever beams by using virtual forces approach [17].
Kim and Kim presented a consistent nite element formulation for the free vibration and spatial stability anal-
ysis of thin-walled tapered beams and space frames. They also derived the kinetic and potential energies of
these members by applying the extended virtual work principle and including second order terms of nite
semi-tangential rotations. They concluded that the nite element developed in their study is well applicable
for those analyses of thin-walled tapered beam-columns and space frames, especially for the inelastic stability
analysis and the connection problem between the nite elements that the sectional properties are varied dis-
continuously [18]. An equilibrium dierential equation considering both the eects of constant axial force and
the shear deformation of tapered beams (referred to as tapered TimoshenkoEuler beam) is established by Li
and Li [19]. Their studies show that the stiness of a tapered member will be reduced signicantly due to the
axial compression and shear deformation in certain cases. They used Chebyshev polynomial approach to solve
the second-order dierential equation with variable coecients. To develop a theoretical approach for second-
order inelastic analysis of steel frames of tapered members with slender web, a concentrated plasticity model is
proposed by Li et al. Their study included signicant eects as residual stresses, initial geometric imperfection,
gradual section yielding at the element ends, distributed plasticity within the element and local web buckling
[20]. Madhusudan et al. has recently analyzed the post-buckling of non-uniform cantilever columns under a
combined load consisting of a tip-concentrated load and distributed axial load based on the dynamic formu-
lation [21].
The purpose of the present study is to investigate the buckling loads of tapered columns using modied
vibrational mode shapes (MVM). The changes along the length can be represented in various forms including,
continuous, piecewise, and single-valued; and may take positive or negative values. Although columns are
only considered here, the procedure may be readily extended to solve other cases such as plate where vibra-
tional mode shapes are known.
The main advantage of this method is that the proposed method can be applied in various form of tapering
function and dierent region of columns. Furthermore, this method does not require any complex and time-
consuming analysis; Consequently, it needs only a minimal input data to carry out the numerical computa-
tions. In order to illustrate the accuracy and practical usefulness of this method, many numerical solutions
are presented and compared with the results of other researchers.
2. Theory and formulation
2.1. General
Consider an abruptly varying thickness column of length L and a modulus of elasticity E (Fig. 1). The col-
umn is formed by two parts. The stepped part of column has a stiness w EI
0
and length fL, where the rest of
the column has a stiness of EI
0
. The stiness ratio w = (EI)
stepped
/(EI)
rest
represent the ratio of stiness at
stepped part to the rest of column. By assuming the expression w < 1, it is considered that the column has
a reduced stiness part of lengths fL and localized at
L
2
1 f < x <
L
2
1 f. The basic procedure in the
buckling analysis of such tapered column, involve the following:
A.R. Rahai, S. Kazemi / Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation 13 (2008) 17211735 1723
(i) Using the dynamic equation of motion, to obtain the modied vibrational mode shape of tapered
columns.
(ii) Based on the similarity between vibrational and buckling mode shapes, the vibrational modes are used
for buckling analysis.
(iii) Invoking the principle of stationary total potential energy to evaluate the critical buckling load of
tapered columns.
2.2. Dynamic equation of motion
2.2.1. Dynamic equation of motion of uniform-section column
The equation of motion governing the transverse vibration of a liner bending of an elastic beam including
eects of rotational inertia and shear deformation is given by Eq. (1).
o
2
ox
2
EI
o
2
yx; t
ox
2
_ _
m
o
2
yx; t
ot
2
m r
2
1
E
j G
_ _
o
4
yx; t
ox
2
ot
2

m
2
r
2
j GA
o
4
yx; t
ot
4
f x; t 0 < x < L 1
where y(x, t) is the exural deection, f(x, t) is the external force, I is the area moment of inertia, m is the mass
per unit length, E is the Youngs modulus of elasticity, G is the shear modulus, r

I=A
_
is the radius of gyra-
tion of the column cross-section, A is the area of cross-section, EI is the exural rigidity of the intact column,
and j is a constant depends on the cross-sectional shape and accounts for the non-uniform distribution of
shear stress across the section, j is derived for various cross-sectional shapes in textbooks on solid mechanics
(e.g., j = 9/10 for circular cross-section and j = 5/6 for rectangular cross-section).
In the absence of rotational inertia and shear deformation, for small amplitude vibrations, the dynamic
equation of motion for the beam is given by [3]
EI
o
4
yx; t
ox
4
m
o
2
yx; t
ot
2
f x; t 0 < x < L 2
In all the relations the Simple beam assumption, are used. Owing to this assumption, the element rota-
tion and shear deformation in comparison with the bending deformation are neglected. In addition, no warp-
ing occurs at any section due to the large bending [3].
2.2.2. Dynamic characteristics of tapered column
Dierentiating from the dynamic equation of motion yields:
EI
o
4
yx; t
ox
4
m
o
2
yx; t
ot
2
f x; t 0 < x < L 3
where dm is the change in the mass distribution along the column and d(EI) is the tapering function which may
characterize the state of increase or decrease in exural stiness along the member length and for stepped col-
umn may be written in the form of
dEI EI
0
w 1
I
0
is the primary moment of inertia of the column. The case w = 1 imply that the column has a uniform sec-
tion, w > 1 and w < 1 indicates respectively the increase and decrease in stiness of column at dierent part.
In this study, it is assumed that there are no changes on the boundaries of column. Thus, the boundary
conditions applied to a column in the uniform-section state can be equally applied to the column in the tapered
Fig. 1. 3-D view of abruptly varying thickness column.
1724 A.R. Rahai, S. Kazemi / Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation 13 (2008) 17211735
state. Furthermore, the tapering in a column is assumed to be uniform through the thickness of column (i.e.,
thickness-through tapering). Based on Fox formulation, the changes in the ith mode shape of a stepped col-
umn can be expressed as a linear combination of natural modes of the corresponding uniform section column
[22]:
dy
i

M
j1
a
ij
y
j
i; j 1; 2; 3; . . . ; M 4
Substituting Eq. (4) in dynamic equation of motion Eq. (3) for the ith mode shape yields:
dEI
o
4
y
i
ox
4
EI

M
j1
a
ij
o
4
y
j
ox
4
dm
o
2
y
i
ot
2
m

m
j1
a
ij
o
2
y
j
ot
2
0 5
Multiplying Eq. (5) on the left side by y
k
, that, i 5k and using y
m
X
2
m
y
m
and integrating for the whole
length of column yields:
_
L
0
dEI y
k
o
4
y
i
ox
4
dx

M
j1
a
ij
_
L
0
EI
o
4
y
j
ox
4
y
k
dx
_ _
X
2
i
_
L
0
dm y
i
y
k
dx

M
j1
a
ij
X
2
j
_
L
0
m y
j
y
k
dx 0
6
The orthogonality property implies that:
_
L
0
my
m
y
n
dx d
mn
7
_
L
0
EI y
m
o
4
y
n
ox
4
dx X
2
m
d
mn
8
where X
m
are the natural frequencies for the uniform-section column and d
mn
is the kronecker symbol and
dened as follows:
d
mn

1 m n
0 m 6 n
_
Substituting Eqs. (7) and (8) into Eq. (6), the above equation is expressed as
_
L
0
dEI
o
4
y
i
ox
4
y
k
dx a
ik
X
2
k
X
2
i
_
L
0
dm y
i
y
k
dx a
ik
X
2
i
0 9
From the above equation, the eect of jth mode shape on changes in ith mode shape can be derived as follows:
a
ik

1
X
2
i
X
2
k
_
L
0
dEI
o
4
y
i
ox
4
y
k
dx X
2
i
_
L
0
dm y
i
y
k
dx
_ _
10
Integration by parts of the rst term of Eq. (10); the above equation can be written as follows:
a
ik

1
X
2
i
X
2
k
_
L
0
dEI
o
2
y
k
ox
2
o
2
y
i
ox
2
dx X
2
i
_
L
0
dm y
i
y
k
dx
_ _
11
Dierentiating the orthogonality property of mode shapes with respect to mass would yields:
_
L
0
dm y
2
i
dx 2
_
L
0
my
i
dy
i
dx 0 12
A.R. Rahai, S. Kazemi / Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation 13 (2008) 17211735 1725
It can be assumed that the eect of changes in the mass distribution function are negligible in comparison with
the signicant changes in the stiness of the structure. Therefore, the rst term in the left side of Eq. (12) can
be removed. Substitute Eq. (4) into the second part of above equation gives:
2
_
L
0
m y
i

a
ij
y
j
dx 0 13
By using orthogonal property, Eq. (7), and applying the Kronecker properties:
2 a
ii
_
L
0
m y
2
i
dx 0 14
It can be shown:
_
L
0
m y
2
i
dx 1
Thus
a
ii
0 15
Generally, the vibrational mode shapes of a tapered column are given by
y
t

i
y
i
dy
i
16
(y
i
)
i
are the ith vibrational mode shapes of tapered columns and dy
i
indicates taper-induced changes in ith
mode shape of a uniform-section column, y
i
refer to various mode shapes of uniform-section columns. Substi-
tuting, dy
i
from Eq. (4) into Eq. (16), may yields:
y
t

i
y
i

M
j1
a
ij
y
j
; i; j 0; 1; 2; . . . ; M 17
where y
i
and y
j
are the natural modes satisfying the eigen-value problem of uniform-section columns, a
ij
shows
the eect of jth mode shape of uniform-section column on the ith mode shape of tapered column and are de-
ned as follows:
a
ij

1
X
2
i
X
2
j
_
L
0
dEI
o
2
y
i
ox
2
o
2
y
j
ox
2
dx X
2
i
_
L
0
dm:y
i
:y
j
dx
_ _
i 6 j
0 i j
_
_
_
i; j 0; 1; 2; . . . ; M
18
In Eq. (18) X
i
and X
j
are the natural frequencies of uniform section column and d(EI) is tapering function and
shows the increase or decrease of stiness in dierent regions of column and can be represented in various
forms; such as, continuous, piecewise, single-valued; and may take positive for stiened or negative values
for reduced stiness columns. The main advantage of this method is that the tapering function can be applied
to any form of stepped columns, having various boundary conditions. That is, of course, if the mode shapes of
uniform-section column are known.
2.3. The energy method
As indicated at the beginning, the vibrational modes of column may be used instead of buckling mode
shapes. This implies that the solution obtained for vibration and buckling dierential equation of column
are similar. By using the vibrational and buckling governing dierential equation, and applying the boundary
condition, it can be shown that the eigen-vectors are the same as for both buckling and vibration analysis of a
column except for magnitude. This constant can be vanished in the process of determining buckling loads in a
way that vibrational modes satisfy the buckling dierential equation; and may thus be used as deected shape
of column for the buckling analysis.
1726 A.R. Rahai, S. Kazemi / Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation 13 (2008) 17211735
In this part, the calculus of variation in conjunction with the principle of stationary total potential energy is
used to determine the conditions that should be satised by the column. By applying the principle of station-
ary total potential energy, we need to evaluate the strain energy U, the external work W
e
, and the total poten-
tial energy P of the column.
For an elastic system, the work done by the external forces on the system is stored as strain energy in the
system. Thus, if a virtual displacement is introduced to system, the external virtual work done by the external
forces on the system is stored as virtual strain energy in the system. The strain energy for a column can be
written as
U
_
L
0
EI
2
o
2
y
t

i
o
2
x
_ _2
dx 19
For the centrally loaded column, Fig. 2 the external work done by edge loading can be written as
W
e

P
2
_
L
0
oy
t

i
ox
_ _
2
dx 20
The sum of the strain energy and potential energy of the system is the total potential energy. Using the symbol
P to denote the total potential energy of a system and therefore, can be written in the following form:
P U W
e
21
In view of the inextensibility of the middle surface, total potential energy can be used to investigate the buck-
ling load of column and can be written in the following form:
P
_
L
0
EI
2
o
2
y
t

i
o
2
x
_ _2
dx
P
2
_
L
0
oy
t

i
ox
_ _
2
dx 22
For equilibrium condition, the rst variation of total potential energy must vanish, it yields:
dP 0 23
The last expression is the mathematical statement of the principle of stationary total potential energy. A sta-
tionary value may correspond to a minimum or maximum value of the total potential energy. A minimum
value indicates that the equilibrium is stable and a maximum value indicates that the equilibrium is unstable,
from this procedure; the buckling load (the least value) of columns can be achieved.
3. Numerical results
3.1. General
Eq. (17) provides a general equation for evaluating the buckling load of columns. This method (MVM) uses
the buckled shape of the uniform-section column, and the modication coecient a
ij
from Eq. (18) to provide
buckling mode shape and the corresponding load for tapered column. The selected examples are for compres-
sion purpose only and do not represent the full capabilities of the proposed method. The numerical procedure
based on the aforementioned developed formulation are then programmed on a desktop computer and numer-
ical resulted are presented for many cases in the following sections.
Fig. 2. An analytical model for buckling analysis of a pinned-ended column.
A.R. Rahai, S. Kazemi / Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation 13 (2008) 17211735 1727
3.2. Comparison of results
In order to demonstrate the accuracy, convergency, and applicability of the present method (MVM), sev-
eral buckling problem of columns with variable thicknesses are analyzed and numerical results are tabulated
and compared with the values available in the literature. Generally speaking, this method is applicable to all
columns whose mode shapes can be expressed by analytical functions, either trigonometric or polynomial.
The natural vibration mode corresponding to natural vibration frequency x
i
for a prismatic, simply sup-
ported column Fig. 2 becomes:
y
i
x C Sin
ipx
L
_ _
i 1; 2; 3 . . . ; M 24
where y
i
(x) is the ith natural vibration mode of the uniform-section column and C is an arbitrary coecient,
these mode shapes are unique, except for the magnitude. The magnitude of the eigen-vectors can be rendered
unique by a process known as normalization; thus using the orthogonal property, the following equation can
be written:
_
L
0
m y
i
x y
j
x dx d
ij
i; j 1; 2; 3; . . . ; M 25
where M indicates the number of normal modes superposed in the analysis and d
ij
is the kronecker delta.
By substituting Eq. (24) into Eq. (25), and applying the Kronecker properties, the following expression can
be obtained as
m C
2

_
L
0
Sin
ipx
L
_ _ _ _
2
dx 1 i 1; 2; 3; . . . ; M 26
Introducing the constant, C, into Eq. (24), the mass-normalized mode shape can be achieved as follows:
y
i

2
m L
_
Sin
ipx
L
_ _
i 1; 2; 3; . . . ; M 27
By substituting Eq. (27), and the natural frequency of simply supported intact column, X
i
ip
2

EI=mL
4
_
,
into Eq. (18), the modied vibrational mode shape of the corresponding stepped column can be achieved from
Eq. (17).
Based on the principle of stationary total potential energy, among all the possible mode shapes (the third
one is shown in Fig. 3) the one that minimizes the energy functional is governed and it should be used as
deected shape of column for buckling analysis.
According to the numerical studies on buckling load of several tapered columns it is found that in the case
of 1 < w < 2 the rst mode shape is governed. However, in order to identify the lowest buckling load for w > 2
Fig. 3. First three vibrational/buckling mode shapes of a simply supported, tapered columns.
1728 A.R. Rahai, S. Kazemi / Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation 13 (2008) 17211735
higher order values of i and j may be required to be taken into account. This is because during the evaluation
process of (y
t
)
i
, there is no prior guarantee that the rst mode shape is always induces the least buckling load.
Numerical studies shows that in most cases, the accurate buckling loads can be estimated with 7 up to 11 mode
shapes and there is no signicant improvement with an increased number of mode shapes.
Herein the study focused on nding the modied rst mode shape of such a column with w < 2.5. Hence to
obtain the modied rst mode shape of such tapered columns, one can substitute i = 1 in Eq. (17), it yields:
y
t

1
y
1

M
j1
a
1j
y
j
j 1; 2; 3; . . . ; M 28
where (y
t
)
1
and y
1
represent the rst mode shape of tapered and the uniform-section column respectively. It
can be seen that the manner of convergence of present method (MVM) results is desirable. Based on preceding
formulation, a FORTRAN computer program was written to obtain the buckling load of such a column.
3.2.1. Buckling load of simply supported stepped column; middle portion fatted
An examination of the bending-moment diagram for the simply supported buckled column shows that a
column of uniform cross-section is not the most optimal form to carry compressive load. For example, in
the case of a compressed bar with hinged ends, the stability can be increased by removing a portion of material
from the ends and increasing the cross-section over the middle section [1].
Fig. 4 shows a simply supported column of length L, Youngs modulus of elasticity E = 210 (GPa), exural
moment of inertia I
0
= 2.1644e
9
m
4
. This column has an abrupt changes in cross-section of length fL, the
stiness fL ratio w = 2 and are subjected to axial compression P
cr
. The modied mode shape of this column
that is used in Eq. (22), is shown in Fig. 5. The obtained results have been compared with those obtained by
FEM method. To develop a model of the stepped column under buckling analysis, the general purpose nite
element program ANSYS [24] was used in this study. The aforementioned column has been modeled with
BEAM3. BEAM3 is a uniaxial element with tension, compression, and bending capabilities. Each node of
the element has three degrees of freedom: translations in the nodal x and y directions and rotation about
Fig. 4. Abruptly varying thickness column, with fL as the length of stiened region.
Fig. 5. Modied vibration/buckling mode shapes of a simply supported stepped column.
A.R. Rahai, S. Kazemi / Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation 13 (2008) 17211735 1729
the nodal z-axis. Table 1 present the buckling load computed by the present method (MVM) and are com-
pared to those obtained by the nite element method [24], and exact expression proposed by Timoshenko
and Gere [1].
The variation of buckling load of the simply supported tapered column subjected to axial compression load
(see Fig. 4), versus tapered size parameters f is presented in Fig. 6. For comparison, the same gure shows
results obtained by Timoshenko and Gere [1]. As it is seen, good agreement exists between results. It should
be noted that the expression proposed by Timoshenko, can be used if the number of tapered part is unity.
However, the method proposed by Timoshenko can be used if the number of changes in the cross-section
is greater than one, but the derivation of expression become more complicated.
3.2.2. Multiple stepped columns subjected to compressive loads
Aging steel structures are prone to suer various types of damages such as corrosion, cracks, and dents and
these members should be free from disastrous structural failures due to these sectional non-uniformity. Hence,
it is of interest to investigate the buckling load of such columns. Fig. 7 shows a simply supported columns of
length L, Youngs modulus E = 210 (GPa), exural moment of inertia I
0
= 4.2231e
9
m
4
, stiness ratio
w = 0.5, and are subjected to axial compression P
cr
. Present method (MVM) can be applied to determine
the buckling load of such stiness-reduced column. Table 2 provides some information on the accuracy
and convergence of the present solution with those obtained by FEM analysis [24]. The table also includes
another case of simply supported column with many reduced-stiness parts (see Fig. 8), subjected to axial
Table 1
Comparison of the present analysis results (MVM) with the other results on the buckling loads of a simply supported stepped column
(see Fig. 4)
Specimen dimension P
cr
(N)
L (m) f Timoshenko [1] Present analysis (FEM) [24] Present analysis (MVM)
5 0.125 195.023 195.027 199.325
5 0.25 222.914 222.913 226.315
5 0.375 254.589 254.576 258.659
6.25 0.3 154.976 154.971 154.502
6.25 0.5 183.902 183.902 184.127
6.25 0.7 210.125 210.116 210.934
7.5 0.4 116.094 116.080 117.410
7.5 0.6 138.126 138.117 138.735
7.5 0.8 150.420 150.429 150.623
Fig. 6. Variation of the elastic critical buckling load of the tapered column versus tapered size parameter, f.
1730 A.R. Rahai, S. Kazemi / Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation 13 (2008) 17211735
compression. The results obtained by the present method are in very good agreement with those of obtained
by the nite element program ANSYS [24].
3.3. Buckling of simply supported tapered column, side part fatted
Babcock and Waas [23] have conducted tests in which the column is buckled and loaded into post-buckled
range (see Fig. 9). The specimen ends are ground to form a V-shape, and are supported on V-notched blocks
to simulate simply supported end conditions [23]. Fig. 9 shows a simply supported columns of length L and
exural stiness EI
0
= .6658 (N m
2
) with abrupt change in cross-section of length fL and the stiness ratio
w = 2.4095, subjected to axial compression P
cr
. The results are reported at Table 3 for various value of f.
Fig. 7. Abruptly varying thickness column.
Table 2
Comparison of the present analysis results (MVM) with the FEM results on the buckling loads of simply supported multiple stepped
columns (see Figs. 7 and 8)
Multiple tapered column P
cr
(N)
Model No. of tapered part Length (m) Present analysis (FEM) [24] Present analysis (MVM)
Fig. 7 2 6 157.60 162.914
Fig. 8 3 6 224.91 225.621
Fig. 8. Multiple stepped column; stiness reduction at several part of column.
Fig. 9. Geometry, coordinates system, and applied in-plane loads of tapered column with abruptly varying section.
Table 3
Comparison of the present analysis results (MVM) with the published test results on the buckling loads of a simply supported stepped
column (see Fig. 9)
Specimen dimensions P
cr
(N)
L (m) f Test results [23] Madhusudan et al. [21] Present analysis (FEM) [24] Present analysis (MVM)
0.2032 0.38 169.032 185.490 185.513 187.142
0.2286 0.33 146.791 139.674 140.221 145.786
0.1905 0.40 204.618 215.738 215.680 220.064
0.1842 0.41 209.066 233.531 233.442 234.915
0.1778 0.43 262.445 256.662 256.493 261.578
0.1715 0.44 289.134 279.348 279.334 284.673
A.R. Rahai, S. Kazemi / Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation 13 (2008) 17211735 1731
The results obtained by present method (MVM) are compared by those reported by Babcock and Waas [23],
Madhusudan et al. [21] and FEM [24].
The buckling analysis of this stepped column is carried out to study the convergence behavior of the present
method. Fig. 10 shows the variation of buckling load with respect to the number of imposed modes. The num-
ber of imposed modes are varied from one to seven in this study. For the case, w < 2.5 it is observed that the
buckling loads are found to converge with seven modes and increasing the number of higher modes does not
show any appreciable improvement. For the columns, having multiple stepped parts and w > 2.5 the higher
mode shapes, eleven modes, may result in a good results.
3.4. Buckling of cantilever tapered column
Fig. 11 shows a steel tapered cantilever column of length L, primary exural stiness I
0
= 24.3e 6 m
4
,
Youngs modulus E = 200 GPa, the stiness ratio w = 2. The vibrational mode shape of a prismatic cantilever
column can be expressed as
y
i
x Ccosa
i
x cosha
i
x pcosa
i
x cosha
i
x
P
i

cosa
i
L cosha
i
L
sina
i
L sinha
i
L
; a
4
i

x
2
i
m
EI
29
Fig. 10. Convergence of buckling load with an increasing number of imposed mode.
Fig. 11. Cantilever column with abruptly varying thickness; geometry and coordinate.
1732 A.R. Rahai, S. Kazemi / Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation 13 (2008) 17211735
Moreover, the corresponding natural frequency can be dened as follows:
x
i
aL
2
i

EI
mL
4
_
; aL
i

p
2
2i 1; i 1; 2; 3; . . . ; M 30
Table 4
Comparison of the present analysis results (MVM) with the other results on the buckling loads of a cantilever stepped column (see Fig. 11)
Specimen dimension P
cr
(kN)
L (m) f Timoshenko [1] Present analysis (FEM) [24] Present analysis (MVM)
5 0.125 545.488 545.482 545.612
5 0.25 623.491 623.497 624.130
5 0.375 712.065 712.060 713.054
7 0.3 335.663 335.659 337.221
7 0.5 410.072 410.067 411.121
7 0.7 468.533 468.530 469.120
9 0.4 225.473 225.472 227.505
9 0.6 268.294 268.291 269.231
9 0.8 292.209 292.206 292.976
Fig. 12. Modied vibrational/buckling mode shape of tapered cantilever column.
Fig. 13. Geometry, coordinates system, and applied in-plane loads of tapered column of linearly varying section.
A.R. Rahai, S. Kazemi / Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation 13 (2008) 17211735 1733
The modied mode shape of this column can be obtained by using Eq. (17) which is shown in Fig. 12. Using
the aforementioned procedure used for simply supported stepped column and using Eqs. (29) and (30) will
result in Table 4, which implies the agreement between present method (MVM) and those obtained by Tim-
oshenko [1], and nite element analysis performed by ANSYS [24].
And nally, Fig. 13 shows a steel tapered cantilever column used by Karabalis [6], and Li [19] as a numer-
ical example for calculating the elastic critical axial load. The results obtained by Karabalis [6], and Li and Li
[19] are compared with those obtained by present study (MVM). Table 5 presents the buckling loads of such a
cantilever column and conrms that the present method is an eective one for buckling analysis of cantilever
column. As it is seen in the most examples, the buckling load obtained by present method (MVM) is higher
than those obtained by experiment and results developed by other researchers.
4. Conclusion
In this study, a new procedure using energy method based on modied vibrational mode shapes (MVM) is
formulated for the buckling analysis of columns. This method is applicable for columns of various regions of
tapering, including dierent stiness function along their length. It is shown that the vibrational mode shapes
of a tapered column is in fact a linear combination of various mode shapes of the uniform-section columns.
This phenomenon is used to estimate the vibrational mode shapes of taper columns. In turn, these mode
shapes are incorporated to evaluate their buckling loads. The method enables to solve for the buckling loads
of any polynomial thickness variation that can be represented as a function in x-direction. Many numerical
analyses are carried out to represent the accuracy of the proposed method by comparing the results to the
works presented by other researchers.
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Table 5
Comparison of the present analysis results (MVM) with the published test results on the buckling loads of a cantilever tapered column (see
Fig. 13)
Specimen dimensions P
cr
(N)
L (m) Karabalis [6] Li [19] Present analysis (MVM)
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E = 206.85 GPa.
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A.R. Rahai, S. Kazemi / Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation 13 (2008) 17211735 1735