ABSTRACT
Typically, a structural member is said to have buckled when the member fails to react to the bending moment generated by a compressive load on it. It this chapter, the buckling of long slender columns and thin plates is considered. A “long” column is defined as one with a slenderness ratio (or length to radius of gyration ratio) greater than 200. Radius of gyration is defined as the square root of the column second moment of area over the cross-sectional area of the column. Likewise, a plate is called a thin plate when its thickness is at least one order of magnitude smaller than the span or diameter of the plate.
