This video shows the buckling failure of a pin-ended, “stocky” steel column under an axial compression load.

Learning Outcomes:

Viewers will gain an improved understanding of:

• Column buckling
• Geometric effects vs material effects
• Plasticity
• Influence of end restraint on buckling behaviour in columns

Initially the column behaves elastically until the column starts to displace sideways (or buckle). The column fails by deforming plastically forming a “plastic hinge” at mid-span. The failure is governed by the material rather than the geometry of the column.

Structures expert, Doctor Ahmer Wadee of Imperial College, London narrates this video. Doctor Wadee is Reader in Nonlinear Mechanics in the Structures Section at Imperial College’s Department of Civil Engineering.

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