Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996
Objectives To develop an understanding of the special features of thin-walled structures, including local and global buckling and local and global plastic mechanisms. At the conclusion of the course the student should be able to analyse and design various thin-walled structures such as box and plate girders.
Synopsis Concepts of structural behaviour, local and global buckling, shear in thin-walled structures, first- and second-order analysis; St Venant torsion of open and closed profiles and multi-celled profiles. Warping torsion, section properties, warping stresses in single and multispan beams, bimoment distribution. Stresses in stiffened plates and box girders, buckling of stiffened plates and box girders by the finite strip method. Elastic buckling of isolated perfect and imperfect plates, Marguerre's equations. Plastic theory applied to thin-walled structures; failure of stiffened plates, box girders and plate girders. Codes of practice (British, Australian and German).
Assessment Examinations (2 hours): 85% + Practical work: 15%