The subject of coupled instabilities is a fascinating field of research with a wide range of practical applications, particularly in the analysis and design of metal structures. Despite the excellent body of existing results concerning coupled instability structural behaviour, this situation has not yet been adequately translated into design rules or specifications. In fact, only to a small extent do modern design codes for metal structures take advantage of the significant progress made in the field.This book, which contains all the invited general reports and selected papers presented at the Third International Conference on “Coupled Instabilities in Metal Structures” (CIMS '2000), should provide a meaningful contribution towards filling the gap between research and practice.

The subject of coupled instabilities is a fascinating field of research with a wide range of practical applications, particularly in the analysis and design of metal structures. Despite the excellent body of existing results concerning coupled instability structural behaviour, this situation has not yet been adequately translated into design rules or specifications. In fact, only to a small extent do modern design codes for metal structures take advantage of the significant progress made in the field. This book, which contains all the invited general reports and selected papers presented at the Third International Conference on "Coupled Instabilities in Metal Structures". (CIMS '2000), should provide a meaningful contribution towards filling the gap between research and practice.

The aim of this book is to review recent research and technical advances, including the progress in design codes, related to the engineering applications of light gauge metal sections made in carbon, high strength and stainless steel, as well as aluminium alloys. Included is a review of the new technologies for connections of light gauge metal members. Main advanced applications, for residential, non residential and industrial buildings and pallet rack systems are also covered. For the first time, this book takes into account all the metallic materials now used more and more for structural components. The book will be of great interest not only for researchers but also for design engineers faced to the use of new metallic materials in modern structural applications.

ICSSD 2002 is the second in the series of International Conferences on Structural Stability and Dynamics, which provides a forum for the exchange of ideas and experiences in structural stability and dynamics among academics, engineers, scientists and applied mathematicians. Held in the modern and vibrant city of Singapore, ICSSD 2002 provides a peep at the areas which experts on structural stability and dynamics will be occupied with in the near future. From the technical sessions, it is evident that well-known structural stability and dynamic theories and the computational tools have evolved to an even more advanced stage. Many delegates from diverse lands have contributed to the ICSSD 2002 proceedings, along with the participation of colleagues from the First Asian Workshop on Meshfree Methods and the International Workshop on Recent Advances in Experiments and Computations on Modeling of Heterogeneous Systems. Forming a valuable source for future reference, the proceedings contain 153 papers ? including 3 keynote papers and 23 invited papers ? contributed by authors from all over the world who are working in advanced multi-disciplinary areas of research in engineering. All these papers are peer-reviewed, with excellent quality, and cover the topics of structural stability, structural dynamics, computational methods, wave propagation, nonlinear analysis, failure analysis, inverse problems, non-destructive evaluation, smart materials and structures, vibration control and seismic responses.The major features of the book are summarized as follows: a total of 153 papers are included with many of them presenting fresh ideas and new areas of research; all papers have been peer-reviewed and are grouped into sections for easy reference; wide coverage of research areas is provided and yet there is good linkage with the central topic of structural stability and dynamics; the methods discussed include those that are theoretical, analytical, computational, artificial, evolutional and experimental; the applications range from civil to mechanical to geo-mechanical engineering, and even to bioengineering.

ICSSD 2002 is the second in the series of International Conferences on Structural Stability and Dynamics, which provides a forum for the exchange of ideas and experiences in structural stability and dynamics among academics, engineers, scientists and applied mathematicians. Held in the modern and vibrant city of Singapore, ICSSD 2002 provides a peep at the areas which experts on structural stability and dynamics will be occupied with in the near future. From the technical sessions, it is evident that well-known structural stability and dynamic theories and the computational tools have evolved to an even more advanced stage. Many delegates from diverse lands have contributed to the ICSSD 2002 proceedings, along with the participation of colleagues from the First Asian Workshop on Meshfree Methods and the International Workshop on Recent Advances in Experiments and Computations on Modeling of Heterogeneous Systems. Forming a valuable source for future reference, the proceedings contain 153 papers — including 3 keynote papers and 23 invited papers — contributed by authors from all over the world who are working in advanced multi-disciplinary areas of research in engineering. All these papers are peer-reviewed, with excellent quality, and cover the topics of structural stability, structural dynamics, computational methods, wave propagation, nonlinear analysis, failure analysis, inverse problems, non-destructive evaluation, smart materials and structures, vibration control and seismic responses.The major features of the book are summarized as follows: a total of 153 papers are included with many of them presenting fresh ideas and new areas of research; all papers have been peer-reviewed and are grouped into sections for easy reference; wide coverage of research areas is provided and yet there is good linkage with the central topic of structural stability and dynamics; the methods discussed include those that are theoretical, analytical, computational, artificial, evolutional and experimental; the applications range from civil to mechanical to geo-mechanical engineering, and even to bioengineering.

The study of structural instability plays a role of primary importance in the field of applied mechanics. Despite the remarkable progresses made in the recent past years, the structural instability remains one of the most challenging topics in applied - chanics. Many problems have bee:: solved in the last decades but still many others remain to be solved satisfactorily. The increasing number of papers published in jo- nals and conferences organized by ECCS, SSRC, IUTAM, and EUROMECH strongly indicates the interest of scientists and engineers in the subject. A careful examination of these publications shows that they tend to fall into one of the two categories. The first is that of practical design direction in which methods for analyzing specific stability problems related to some specific structural typologies are developed. The research works are restricted to determining the critical load, considering that it is sufficient to know the limits of stability range. These studies are invaluable since their aim is to provide solutions to practical problems, to supply the designer with data useful for design and prepare norms, specifications and codes. The second direction is that of theoretical studies, aiming at a mathematical modeling of the instability problems, for a better understanding of the phenomena. In these studies, special emphasis is placed on the behavior of structures after the loss of stability in the post-critical range. This approach is less familiar to designers as its results have not yet become part of current structural design practice.

The book is concerned with design of cold-formed steel structures in building based on the Eurocode 3 package, particularly on EN 1993-1-3. It contains the essentials of theoretical background and design rules for cold-formed steel sections and sheeting, members and connections for building applications. Elaborated examples and design applications - more than 200 pages - are included in the respective chapters in order to provide a better understanding to the reader.