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Thin-Walled Structures: History
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Contributor: Eng Editorial Office

Thin-walled structures are structural systems in which one dimension, the wall thickness, is substantially smaller than the other two geometric dimensions, typically by a ratio on the order of one hundred or more. The category encompasses plates, shells, built-up cold-formed sections, and tubular members whose structural behavior is governed by thin-wall theory rather than solid-mechanics assumptions [1]. The defining mechanical characteristic is that stresses through the thickness are essentially uniform, while bending and membrane action dominate the load-carrying mechanism. Thin-walled members exhibit distinctive instability phenomena, including local buckling, distortional buckling, flexural-torsional buckling, and shear buckling, which arise because the slender cross-sectional elements are prone to out-of-plane deformations under compressive stress [2]. The analysis of such structures requires shell theory or finite-element formulations that account for membrane stiffness, bending stiffness, and geometric nonlinearity, as classical beam theory based on Euler-Bernoulli assumptions is insufficient when cross-section deformation cannot be neglected [3]. The thin-wall geometric ratio is the fundamental parameter that determines whether plate-buckling, shell-buckling, or global member-buckling modes govern the structural response.

  • thin-walled structures
  • shell theory
  • buckling
  • plate bending

Advanced Materials and Mechanics •  Mechanical Engineering •  Engineering •  Physical Sciences

References

  1. Timoshenko S.P.; Gere J.M. Theory of Elastic Stability, 2nd ed.; McGraw-Hill: New York, NY, USA, 1961.
  2. Gere J.M.; Timoshenko S.P. Mechanics of Materials, 3rd ed.; PWS-Kent: Boston, MA, USA, 1990. ISBN: 0534921744.
  3. Eduardo N. Dvorkin; Klaus‐Jürgen Bathe; A continuum mechanics based four‐node shell element for general non‐linear analysis. Eng. Comput. 1984, 1, 77-88, 10.1108/eb023562.
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