The postbuckling behavior and imperfection sensitivity of the Shanley–Hutchinson
plastic model column introduced by Hutchinson in 1973 are examined. The study
covers the initial, buckled state and the advanced postbuckling regime of
the geometrically perfect realization as well as its sensitivity to geometric
imperfections.
In Section 1, which is concerned with the perfect structure, a new, simple explicit
upper bound for all solutions to the problem is found when the tangent modulus at
bifurcation vanishes compared to the linear elastic (unloading) modulus. The
difference between the upper bound and the solution to an actual problem is
determined by an asymptotic expansion involving hyperbolic trial functions
(instead of polynomials) which fulfill general boundary conditions at bifurcation
and infinity. The method provides an accurate estimate of the maximum
load even if it occurs in an advanced postbuckling state. Finally, it is shown
that the maximum load is often considerably larger than the bifurcation
load.
Section 2 presents a new asymptotic expansion which is utilized to study the
imperfection sensitivity of the Shanley–Hutchinson elastic-plastic model column. The
method is mainly characterized by three novel features. Firstly, unlike other
expansions which are performed around one or maybe two points, ours takes the total
postbuckling path of the geometrically perfect structure as its basis, that is, the
equilibrium of an imperfect path is written as the postbuckling path of the perfect
structure plus an asymptotic contribution. Secondly, the expansion parameter is
chosen as the buckling mode amplitude minus its value at initiation of elastic
unloading. In this connection, the asymptotic expansion of initiating elastic
unloading to the lowest order given by Hutchinson serves as a kind of boundary value
for the asymptotic expression. Thirdly, a new and more suitable set of base functions
is introduced to enhance the accuracy of the asymptotic expansion for large
imperfection levels without compromising the asymptotic behavior for small
imperfections. If an asymptotically exact postbuckling solution for the perfect
structure around the maximum load has been obtained by some method, be it
numerical or asymptotic, then the prediction of the imperfection sensitivity is
asymptotically correct.