CHAPTER 6 179

Nonlinear Analysis

6.3 Nonlinear Buckling Analysis

Introduction
Nonlinear buckling analysis capability has been available for a long time in SOL 106
using a restart with PARAM,BUCKLE,1, as described in Section 10.1 of the
[Link] Handbook of Nonlinear Analysis. While serving the purpose of the
nonlinear buckling analysis following a static nonlinear analysis, this buckling
analysis procedure is cumbersome to the user because it requires a restart. In order
to provide a more convenient and versatile capability for nonlinear buckling analysis,
an option for a buckling analysis using a cold-start run with PARAM,BUCKLE,2 was
introduced in [Link] Version 70.7. This option allows buckling analysis in any
Subcase that has a METHOD command specified for an eigenvalue analysis. A few
errors in the BUCKLE=2 option have been detected in Version 70.7 and corrected in
[Link] 2001.
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Example ([Link])
The following input file shows how a nonlinear buckling analysis can be performed
in a cold start run:
ID NLSOLIDB,V2001 $ SHL 4/27/00
SOL 106 $
DIAG 8 ,50 $
TIME 60 $ FOR VAX
CEND
TITLE=ELASTIC-PLASTIC BUCKLING OF IMPERFECT SPHERICAL SHELL
SUBTITLE=HYDROSTATIC PRESSURE APPLIED,PERIPHERY CLAMPED
SET 10 =100,200,109,209,119,219,131,231
SET 20 =10,11,15,20,25
SET 30 = 1000
ECHO=UNSORT
DISP=10
OLOAD=30
STRESS(PLOT)=20
SPC=10
$ buckling analysis in cold-start
PARAM,BUCKLE,2
$
SUBCASE 1
LOAD=10
NLPARM=10
SUBCASE 2
LOAD=20
NLPARM=20
METHOD=30 $ for buckling analysis
SUBCASE 3
LOAD=30
NLPARM=30
METHOD=30 $ for buckling analysis
BEGIN BULK
$ FOR BUCKLING ANALYSIS
EIGB 30 SINV 0.0 2. 20 2 2
$ PARAMETERS
PARAM POST 0
PARAM LGDISP 1
NLPARM 10 2 AUTO 7 30 yes
NLPARM 20 5 AUTO 1 30 yes
NLPARM 30 2 AUTO 1 yes
$ LOADING
LOAD 10 1. 2. 1 2. 2
LOAD 20 1. 3. 1 3. 2
LOAD 30 1. 3.5 1 3.5 2
$ unit pressure is 1000 psi
PLOAD4 1 10 1000. 100
PLOAD4 1 11 1000. 101 104
…
$ a dummy force applied to a fixed point to output critical buckling load
FORCE 2 1000 1000. 0. 0. 1.
GRID 1000 0. 0. 0. 123456
…
…
ENDDATA

The buckling analysis is requested in Subcases 2 and 3 in the example. Notice that the
KSTEP field on each of the NLPARM entries for both Subcases 2 and 3 are set to 1 to
force a stiffness matrix update at every solution step. The PARAM,BUCKLE,2 is
placed above Subcase 1, but it could be placed in the Bulk Data Section or under the
desired subcases. The buckling solutions in Subcases 2 and 3 will be different because
the nonlinear buckling solution is an approximate solution based on extrapolation of
two consecutive incremental solutions. The buckling solution tends to be more
accurate when these two consecutive incremental steps are closer to the buckling
point. However, the user does not know where the buckling point is until the analysis
is performed. For this reason, the user may want to divide the load into a number of
subcases and perform buckling analysis in multiple subcases.
 CHAPTER 6 181
Nonlinear Analysis

In the previous example, pressure loads of 2000 and 3000 psi are applied in the first
and the second subcase, respectively. The second subcase has five increments with
an incremental pressure of 200 psi.
At the end of the second subcase, an eigenvalue analysis is performed due to
PARAM,BUCKLE,2, which resulted in α = 0.4681 . Then the critical buckling load
is calculated as
cr = P n + α∆P = 3000 + 0.4681 ⋅ 200 = 3093.62
The third subcase applies a pressure load of 3500 psi in two increments, followed by
a buckling analysis.
The buckling analysis resulted in α = 0.1135 , and the buckling load from this
second eigenvalue analysis yields
cr = P n + α∆P = 3500 + 0.1135 ⋅ 250 = 3528.38
If this buckling analysis is repeated by a restart run into subcase 3 using
PARAM,BUCKLE,1, the eigenvalue analysis should give an identical solution within
round-off error.
Discussion
Let us return to the example list of the input data for a review. Notice the OLOAD
request for grid point 1000 that is fixed in space. However, a force of 1000 is applied
to this dummy node with the same scaling in the LOAD Bulk Data as the pressure
load. This OLOAD request prints the applied load for GRID 1000 at the eigenvalue
solution step under the heading LOAD VECTOR. This applied load at buckling is
identical to the critical buckling load calculated above. One can use this value as the
critical buckling load instead of performing the above calculation.
There are two more ways to estimate the critical buckling load. One method is the
arclength method that can provide solutions past the critical buckling load into the
post-buckling state. Using the arclength method, the nodal displacement of a point
with the most noticeable motion should be traced to detect the peak load. The applied
load at this peak resembles the critical buckling load. Another method is to use the
Newton’s method until the solution cannot be obtained due to divergence, in which
case adaptive bisection method is activated in the vicinity of the critical buckling load
and stops at the limit load close to the critical buckling load. When the example
problem was analyzed using an arclength method (CRIS), the solution went through
the peak load of 3559.2 psi. When the same problem was analyzed using the Newton’s
method with bisection procedure, the solution traced up to the maximum load of
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3540.63 psi before diverging due to instability. When the model was remeshed with
about 100 times more elements, the buckling analysis procedure predicted a critical
buckling load at 3545.43 psi. In this refined model, Newton’s method with bisection
converged up to 3546.88 psi and the arclength method peaked at 3555.72 psi.
Concluding Remarks
The following conclusion can be drawn from the preceding example. More refined
models generally result in more accurate solutions as the eigenvalue analysis predicts
a more accurate buckling point as the two soultion points for extrapolation approach
the actual bucking point. Comparison of the results confirms that the limit load
obtained from Newton’s method with adaptive bisection process closely predicts the
critical buckling load. The arclength method tends to predict a slightly higher value
for the buckling load.