Date of Award

12-1-2014

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Civil Engineering

First Advisor

Kassimali, Aslam

Abstract

The objective of this study was to numerically investigate the effects of slenderness ratios and end rotational restraints on the post-buckling behavior of non-sway columns. To study the effect of end restraints, numerical solutions were generated for three different support conditions, namely, hinged-hinged, fixed-hinged and fixed-fixed. Furthermore, for each of these support conditions, the effects of slenderness ratios on the post-buckling response were analyzed by considering the slenderness ratios of 50,125 and 200. Based on the numerical data presented in this thesis, the following conclusions can be made.  The unrestrained columns under mechanical loads do not exhibit any significant post-buckling strength.  Restrained Columns subjected to thermal loading undergo significantly smaller deformations in contrast to unrestrained columns, where deformations are relatively larger as the loads are increased only slightly above their critical levels.  The mechanical post-buckling response does not seem to depend on the slenderness ratios of the columns ;whereas the thermal post-buckling response depends on the slenderness ratios of the columns with the relative deformation decreasing with slenderness ratio at a given temperature ratio.  Post buckling behavior of columns subjected to mechanical loadings does not seem to change when the rotational restraints are added whereas in case of columns subjected to thermal loading, the post-buckling response depends on the rotational restraints at the ends of the column. o For a constant slenderness ratio, the deflection ratio was found out to be the smallest for the hinged-hinged column and largest for the fixed-fixed column subjected to thermal loads at a given temperature ratio.

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This thesis is Open Access and may be downloaded by anyone.