Author(s)

Lihua Huang, Bin Li, Yuefang Wang

Faculty of Infrastructure Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China.

The quasi-static explicit finite element method (FEM) and element free Galerkin (EFG) method are applied to trace the post-buckling equilibrium path of thin-walled members in this paper. The factors that primarily control the explicit buckling solutions, such as the computation time, loading function and dynamic relaxation, are investigated and suggested for the buckling analysis of thin-walled members. Three examples of different buckling modes, namely snap-through, overall and local buckling, are studied based on the implicit FEM, quasi-static explicit FEM and EFG method via the commercial software LS-DYNA. The convergence rate and accuracy of the explicit methods are compared with the conventional implicit arc-length method. It is drawn that EFG quasi-static explicit buckling analysis presents the same accurate results as implicit finite element solution, but is without convergence problem and of less-consumption of computing time than FEM.

Quasi-Static Explicit Solution, Buckling Analysis, Thin-Walled Members, FEM, EFG

Huang, L. , Li, B. and Wang, Y. (2017) FEM and EFG Quasi-Static Explicit Buckling Analysis for Thin-Walled Members. Open Journal of Civil Engineering, 7, 432-452. doi: 10.4236/ojce.2017.73030.