BUCKLING BEHAVIOR OF A COMPRESSIVE MEMBER STIFFENED BY TENSILE MEMBERS : Geometrically nonlinear analysis and buckling test

In designing a compressive member such as a column, the most important thing is to avoid lateral buckling. In order to prevent buckling, one may enlarge the cross-section, improve the boundary condition, or make an elastic support in the middle of the member. A compressive member stiffened by tensile members, which is taken as a buckling prevention system, is studied in this paper. By using geometrically nonlinear finite element method, elastic buckling analysis of the system has been carried out. The influences of the layout of the tensile members and the level of the introduced initial stresses on the buckling load are precisely investigated. The numerical results show a great improvement of the buckling ability of the compressive member through using the system and the effectiveness of the system of a column stiffened by tensile reinforcement members is verified through a buckling test.