First-order and linear buckling analysis of thin-walled cylinders using new GBT deformation modes

Conventional Generalised Beam Theory represents the displacement field of a thin-walled member as a linear combination of deformation modes classified in three main families: Vlasov, Shear and Transverse Extension modes. Recently the author proposed a unified family of deformation modes for the linear buckling analysis of thin-walled cylinders. The main advantage of a single family of deformation modes is the reduced number of degrees of freedom. The proposed formulation was limited to the linear buckling analysis of members under constant pre-buckling stresses along the members’ longitudinal axis (i.e., uniform compression, bending and torsion). In this paper, the novel formulation is extended to perform for arbitrary loading: (i) first-order (pre-buckling) analysis, and (ii) linear buckling analysis using variable pre-buckling stresses.