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Euler's critical load

The critical load is the maximum load (unit: Newton, it is a force) which a column can bear while staying straight. It
is given by the formula:[1]

where

, Euler's critical load (longitudinal

compression load on column),
, modulus of elasticity of column
material,
, minimum area moment of inertia of
the cross section of the column,
, unsupported length of column,
, column effective length factor

This formula was derived in 1757, by the Swiss

mathematician Leonhard Euler. The column will
remain straight for loads less than the critical load.
The critical load is the greatest load that will not
cause lateral deflection (buckling). For loads greater
Fig. 1: Column effective length factors for Euler's critical
than the critical load, the column will deflect laterally. load. In practical design, it is recommended to increase
The critical load puts the column in a state of unstable the factors as shown above.
equilibrium. A load beyond the critical load causes the
column to fail by buckling. As the load is increased
beyond the critical load the lateral deflections increase, until it may fail in other modes such as yielding of the
material. Loading of columns beyond the critical load are not addressed in this article.

Around 1900, J. B. Johnson showed that at low slenderness ratios an alternative formula should be used.

Contents
Assumptions of the model
Mathematical derivation: Pin ended column
Mathematical derivation: General approach
See also
References

Assumptions of the model

The following assumptions are made while deriving Euler's formula:[2]

1. The material of the column is homogeneous and isotropic.

2. The compressive load on the column is axial only.
3. The column is free from initial stress.
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4. The weight of the column is neglected.

5. The column is initially straight (no eccentricity of the axial
load).
6. Pin joints are friction-less (no moment constraint) and
fixed ends are rigid (no rotation deflection).
7. The cross-section of the column is uniform throughout its
length.
8. The direct stress is very small as compared to the
bending stress (the material is compressed only within the
elastic range of strains).
9. The length of the column is very large as compared to the
cross-sectional dimensions of the column.
10. The column fails only by buckling. This is true if the
compressive stress in the column does not exceed the
yield strength (see figure 2): Fig. 2: Critical stress vs slenderness ratio for
steel, for E = 200 GPa, yield strength =
240 MPa.

For slender columns, critical stress is usually lower than yield stress, and in the elastic range. In contrast, a stocky
column would have a critical buckling stress higher than the yield, i.e. it yields in shortening prior the virtual elastic
buckling onset.

Where:

, slenderness ratio,
, the effective length,
, radius of gyration,
, moment of inertia,
, area cross section.

Mathematical derivation: Pin ended column

The following model applies to columns simply supported at each end ( ).

Firstly, we will put attention to the fact there are no reactions in the hinged ends, so we also have no shear force in any
cross-section of the column. The reason for no reactions can be obtained from symmetry (so the reactions should be in
the same direction) and from moment equilibrium (so the reactions should be in opposite directions).

Using the free body diagram in the right side of figure 3, and making a summation of moments about point A:

where w is the lateral deflection.

According to Euler–Bernoulli beam theory, the deflection of a beam is related with its bending moment by:

so:

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Let , so:

We get a classical homogeneous Fig. 3: Pin ended column under the effect of Buckling load
second-order ordinary
differential equation.

The general solutions of this equation is: , where and are constants to be
determined by boundary conditions, which are:

Left end pinned

Right end pinned

If , no bending moment exists and we get the

trivial solution of .

However, from the other solution we

get , for

Together with as defined before, the

various critical loads are:

, for
Fig. 4: First three modes of buckling loads

and depending upon the value of , different

buckling modes are produced[3] as shown in figure
4. The load and mode for n=0 is the nonbuckled mode.

Theoretically, any buckling mode is possible, but in the case of a slowly applied load only the first modal shape is likely
to be produced.

The critical load of Euler for a pin ended column is therefore:

and the obtained shape of the buckled column in the first mode is:

Mathematical derivation: General approach

The differential equation of the axis of a beam[4] is:

For a column with axial load only, the lateral load vanishes and substituting , we get:

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This is a homogeneous fourth-order

differential equation and its general solution
is

Fig. 5: forces and moments acting on a column.

The four constants are determined by the boundary conditions (end constraints) on , at each end.
There are three cases:

1. Pinned end:

and

2. Fixed end:

and

3. Free end:

and

For each combination of these boundary conditions, an eigenvalue problem is obtained. Solving those, we get the
values of Euler's critical load for each one of the cases presented in Figure 1.

See also
Buckling
Bending moment
Bending
Euler–Bernoulli beam theory

References
1. "Column Buckling" (https://mechanicalc.com/reference/column-buckling).
2. "Questions on Columns and Struts" (http://engineering.myindialist.com/2015/twelve-viva-questions-on-columns-a
nd-struts/#.VzmNfvl97cs).
3. "Buckling of Columns" (https://web.archive.org/web/20150528132132/http://web.aeromech.usyd.edu.au/AMME23
01/Documents/Chapter09.pdf) (PDF). Archived from the original (http://web.aeromech.usyd.edu.au/AMME2301/D
ocuments/Chapter09.pdf) (PDF) on 2015-05-28.
4. Timoshenko, S. P. & Gere, J. M. (1961). Theory of Elastic Stability, 2 ed., McGraw-Hill.

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