LAUSR

Abstract This paper presents an analytical investigation of the thermoelastic lateral-torsional buckling of circular arches under an arbitrary radial point load in a uniform thermal environment accounting for shear deformations, which has not been reported in the literature. The interaction of thermal environment with the arbitrary load and elastic end restraints produces complex non-uniform compressive, bending, and shearing actions in the arch. The theoretical solutions of the critical load and temperature field for the elastic lateral-torsional buckling of arches accounting for shear deformations are derived. Comparisons of theoretical solutions with finite element results show that their agreements are excellent. Effects of various factors on the lateral-torsional buckling are investigated. An increase of the temperature field reduces the buckling load, while an increase of the radial load reduced the critical temperature field for buckling. The effect of shear deformations on the lateral-torsional buckling load is also explored. It is shown that the neglect of shear deformations causes errors in the prediction of the critical buckling load. When shear deformations are considered, the buckling load for arches with a small and intermediate lateral slenderness ratio under the radial point load alone is shown to be lower than that without consideration of shear deformations. However, under the uniform temperature field alone, the critical temperature field for lateral-torsional buckling of the arches considering shear deformations is higher than that neglecting shear deformations.