Buckling - Plastic Buckling

Plastic Buckling

Buckling will generally occur slightly before the theoretical buckling strength of a structure, due to plasticity of the material. When the compressive load is near buckling, the structure will bow significantly and approach yield. The stress-strain behavior of materials is not strictly linear even below yield, and the modulus of elasticity decreases as stress increases, with more rapid change near yield. This lower rigidity reduces the buckling strength of the structure and causes premature buckling. This is the opposite effect of the plastic bending in beams, which causes late failure relative to the Euler-Bernoulli beam equation.