Visualize Buckling Update

SSRC is pleased to share that Distginuished Member Ron Ziemian has released the latest version of his buckling website, www.mastan2.com. The Visualize Buckling tab will provide 43 models for to enhance your students, colleagues, and friends understanding of buckling behavior, along with access to STL files for 3D printing.

This latest version implements many of the suggestions provided by users. The animations are hopefully a useful teaching aid, that will additionally work on cell phone and tablets. Please feel free to share this resource widely, and don’t hesitate to reach out Ron Ziemian (ziemian@bucknell.edu) if you have any questions or run into any bugs.

The Visualize Buckling project, led by Professors Ron Ziemian and Constance W. Ziemian of Bucknell University in collaboration with Professor Siwei Liu of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, aims to give engineering educators and students of all ages access to models that visually demonstrate different buckling modes. Buckling can be a complex strength limit state that can occur in various forms—local, flexural (bending), torsional (twisting), lateral-torsional, or flexural-torsional—depending on factors such as member length, cross-section, material properties, and loading and support conditions. To make this challenging topic more intuitive, opportunities for graphical and 3D-printed visual aids are provided that attempt to bring structural behavior to life. These models are easy to use in the classroom and offer students hands-on opportunities to observe and understand buckling phenomena. The overarching goal of the project is to build a freely accessible, growing library of educational tools that engage students, support educators, and advance engineering education worldwide.