The Lateral Buckling of Slender Beams:  An Historical Perspective

David A. Peters
Professor and Chairman
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Washington University
Saint Louis, Missouri

Date:  Friday, March 21, 1997
Time:  3:30 p.m.
Place:  306 Bancroft Hall


The first analyses of the lateral buckling of slender beams were published independently by Mitchell and Prandtl in 1899. These analyses, however, contained fundamental errors in their treatment of bending prior to buckling. Later investigators (including H. Reissner, Timoschenko, and Goodier), were apparently unaware of this earlier work and introduced or perpetuated further errors that could have been avoided had they surveyed the literature. These errors were at last discovered and corrected in 1974. Interestingly, the corrected buckling equations are much simpler than the original versions and provide an accurate buckling formula. Since 1974, the corrected equations have been extended by some investigators (including E. Reissner) to apply to related buckling problems.