Unrestrained out-of-plane buckling of monosymmetric rings

Abstract Rings which are loaded by a uniformly distributed radial inward load may buckle out of the plane of the ring. This paper is concerned with out-of-plane buckling of rings of monosymmetric section with the axis of symmetry oriented radially. It is assumed that there are no restraints against buckling displacements. A new solution to the problem is derived and compared extensively with existing analytical solutions and finite element analysis. All the existing solutions are shown to be either limited in application or in eror. The new solution compares well with finite element analyses, provided there is no distortion of the cross section.