Effect of shear lag on buckling of thin-walled members with any cross-section

The purpose of this paper is to develop a general method, called the spline finite member element method, for predicting the effect of shearing strains in the middle surface of the walls on the buckling of thin-walled members with any cross-section because the classical theory of thin-walled members is based on the assumption of no shearing strains and is unable to reflect the shear lag phenomenon. A governing energy equation for the buckling has been derived in which the effects of torsion, warping of the member and, especially, the shearing strains in the middle surface of the wall are taken into account. The accuracy of the method is tested based on some available closed-form solutions. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.