Elastic Buckling Strength of Braced Parallel Compression Members

This paper deals with the elastic buckling strength of a system consisting of a number of centrally-loaded compression members with the same length, which are connected each other by rigid members and elastically braced at midpoint. The compression load and bending stiffness of each member are set equal to si and ti times those of the Reference member, respectively. An approximate method to compute elastic buckling strength of the system is proposed, by replacing the system by an equivalent single braced member, and the accuracy of the approximate solution are discussed, based on the results of analysis of several examples