Buckling of Bulk Structures With Finite Prebuckling Deformation

Abstract

Abstract The prebuckling deformation of structures is neglected in most of the conventional buckling theory (CBT) and numerical method (CNM), because it is usually very small in conventional concepts. In the preceding paper (Su et al., 2019), we found a class of structures from the emerging field of stretchable electronics, of which the prebuckling deformation became large and essential for determining the critical buckling load, and developed a systematic buckling theory for 3D beams considering the effects of finite prebuckling deformation (FPD). For bulk structures that appear vastly in the advanced structures, a few buckling theories consider the effects of the prebuckling deformation in constitutive equations by energy method, which are significantly important but not straightforward and universal enough. In this paper, a systematic and straightforward theory for the FPD buckling of bulk structures is developed with the use of two constitutive models. The variables for the prebuckling deformation serve as the coefficients of the incremental displacements, deformation components, and stress in the buckling analysis. Four methods, including the CBT, CNM, DLU (disturbing-loading-unloading method) method and FPD buckling theory, are applied to the classic problems, including buckling of an elastic semi-plane solid and buckling of an elastic rectangular solid, respectively. Compared with the accurate buckling load from the DLU method, the FPD buckling theory is able to give a good prediction, while the CBT and CNM may yield unacceptable results (with 70% error for the buckling of an elastic semi-plane solid).