Design Strategies for Controlling Structural Instabilities

An overview of buckling behaviour is presented, with emphasis on its analysis and design implications and ways of incorporating these considerations in the design of spatial structures. In the first part of the paper the fundamental stability concepts are briefly reviewed. The major types of instability are presented and typical structures that are prone to fail in such modes are identified. The influence of initial imperfections is discussed, as well as the interaction between different failure modes. In the second part, practical issues pertaining to structural analysis and design are addressed. These include hints to identify potential instability modes and obtain approximate buckling loads by analytical considerations, guidelines for selection of appropriate analysis methods, as well as discussion of pertinent design approaches, code provisions and issues that are not covered by present codes.