This video demonstrates elastic buckling of a pin-ended, slender, steel column under an axial compression load.

Learning Outcomes:

Viewers will gain an improved understanding of:

• Column buckling
• Elasticity
• Geometric effects vs material effects

The column behaves elastically returning to its original position as the load is removed. The video demonstrates how the strength of the column rapidly decreases once the buckling instability has occurred.

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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