Effect of Support Stiffness on Stability of Shallow Arches

The nonlinear behavior and in-plane stability of parabolic shallow arches with elastic rotational supports are investigated. A central concentrated load is applied to create the compression in the supports. Nonlinear buckling analysis based on the virtual work formulation is carried out to obtain the critical load for both symmetric snap-through buckling and anti-symmetric bifurcation buckling. It is found that the effect of rotational stiffness of the elastic supports on the critical loads is significant. The critical load increases as either the initial stiffness coefficient α or the stiffening rate β increases. The effect of the stiffening rate β on the critical loads decreases, as the initial stiffness coefficient α increases. In addition, the influence of rotational stiffness on the bifurcation buckling is larger than that on the snap-through buckling. The limit of the geometric parameter λ between the bifurcation and snap-through buckling modes also increases with the increase in the stiffening rate β. In addition, the snap-through buckling mode governs the buckling of the arch with larger stiffening rates.