Buckling of Columns Theory

History

• Leonhard Euler, an 18th-century Swiss mathematician and physicist, pioneered modern theories on column buckling. Among Euler's work in physics was the proposal that there is a critical load for buckling any size or type of column.

Basics

• In a compression material failure, which usually occurs to short, fat columns, the material cracks or crumbles. Buckling failure typically happens to a column that is long and thin. A combination of compression material failure and buckling failure can occur when the length and width of a column is between short and fat and long and skinny.

Equation

• Euler created a formula to determine the critical load for the buckling of a column. Using the letter E to signify modulus of elasticity of the material, I to represent minimum moment of inertia, and L for the unsupported length of the column, engineers can determine how much weight a particular column can bear before it buckles.