Relationship Between the Elastic Buckling of Square Tubes and Rectangular Plates

Abstract

The buckling behavior of axially compressed square tubes is investigated by introducing realistic edge conditions for the panels which correspond to symmetry or antisymmetry in the modes of deformation of the tube cross-section with regard to the diagonals of the section. The results show a number of differences between the buckling behavior of square tubes and of simply-supported plates. This vanishes only for very thin tubes and plates. The comparison between the buckling mode for thinner and thicker tubes suggests an explanation for the existence of compact and noncompact crushing modes in the subsequent crushing of tubes.