Effect of distortion on the structural behavior of thin-walled steel regular polygonal tubes

Abstract

This paper addresses the effect of cross-section distortion on the structural behaviour of thin-walled tubes with single-cell regular convex polygonal crosssections (RCPS) and provides an in-depth view on the underlying mechanical aspects. In particular, the first-order, buckling (bifurcation) under uniform compression and undamped free vibration behaviours are characterised using the modal decomposition features and computational efficiency of a GBT (Generalised Beam Theory) specialization for RCPS recently developed by the authors [1]. Several analytical and illustrative numerical results are presented and discussed within the paper.