On the Buckling Behavior of Thin-Walled Steel Tubes Subjected to Combinations of Axial Compression and External Lateral Pressure

This paper reports the results of a numerical investigation on the buckling behavior of thin-walled steel tubes subjected to combinations of axial compression and external lateral pressure -- these results are obtained by means of a GBT-based beam finite element formulation, recently developed by the authors, and also ANSYS shell finite element analyses. After providing a brief overview of the main concepts and procedures involved in performing GBT buckling analyses of circular cylindrical steel shells (such as cylinders/tanks and pipes), a parametric study is presented. It deals with the assessment of the buckling behavior of thin-walled steel tubes (radius-to-thickness ratio below 100) under various combinations of axial compression and external lateral pressure. In particular, the joint influence of the loading, length-to-radius ratio and radius-to-thickness ratio on the tube critical buckling load and mode shape is investigated.

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