The Temporal Evolution of Buckling in a Dynamically Impacted Column

Abstract

The time-dependent progressive evolution of transverse displacements of an axially impacted, slender, geometrically imperfect, column is studied here. The analysis is concerned with evaluating the time-history associated with the evolution of the buckling response as a function of the initial geometric imperfection amplitude. The exact solution of the axial stress wave propagation is employed to study the physics of the buckling response with the nonuniform axial strain distribution varying in time and space. The responses of axially impacted columns are examined in light of past experimental results and associated numerical solutions. Results in the present paper are limited to elastic column behavior.