Theoretical and numerical approach to buckling analysis

Subject of this article concerns bending stability of beam elements. Authors attempt to explain phenomenon of buckling in civil engineering with method of calculating buckling eigenvalues using commonly known analytical formulas and as alternative using FEM software. In engineering practice it is often required to specify critical value of bending moment for beam elements. In such situations analytical formulas are commonly taken under consideration. However, as far as this approach is relatively easy for simple models (e.g. simply supported beam), it is not obvious how to obtain correct results for more sophisticated boundary conditions and untypical trajectory of bending moments, as in these cases plain formulas are usually insufficient. Coming across these requirements, authors of following article present simple method, which gives satisfying results. The text is aimed to people who have basic strength-of-materials knowledge and was written in order to organize general information concerning theoretical and numerical approach to buckling analysis