Application of Plastic Buckling of Pipes to a Structural Fastening System

The one-sided fastening systems of structures using plastic buckling of the thin pipe are studied in this paper. The plastic buckling occurs in a predetermined annealed area of the thin pipe when the axial compressive load is applied to the thin pipe. Estimations of buckling deformation, load and post-buckling behavior are very important, because the buckling deformations are used as the backside head of fastening the objects, and the post-buckling behavior affect the reliability and the strength of fastening system. The whole fastening process is studied by the nonlinear finite element analysis consistently. In order to evaluate the deformation behavior of pipes in fastening the objects, effects of the parameters such as the length and thickness of the pipe, the band and position of annealed area of the pipe are investigated. Two types of deformation modes of the pipe are found in the analysis, the position of annealed area of the pipe is dominant for the deformation mode, and the optimal values of the parameters are obtained in the analysis.