Interactive instabilities of thin‐walled laminated composite pultrusion box columns

The problem of interactive buckling and post‐buckling of intermediate length thin‐walled columns built of laminated plate elements subjected to compressive load has been proposed and solved analytically. Pultrusion columns have wide‐range applications in high‐rise building due to their low weight and high load carrying capacity. Classic stability theory and laminate theory were implemented to prove the existence of mixed‐mode buckling in thin‐walled pultrusion columns. Interactive stability modes can result in lower loading capacity of most compressive members and affects their post‐buckling behaviour in major proportions. Interactive buckling load analysis has been performed by means of a simplified theoretical model and verified by means of numerical analysis. The calculations were carried out for commonly used square section thin‐walled composite columns dimensions. The post‐buckling performance of selected sections has been investigated and an optimum layup configuration criterion for each section has been extracted according to pre‐ and post‐critical behaviour. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.