Principles of Localized Buckling for a Strut on an Elastoplastic Foundation

Abstract

Localization theory for long continuous structures is extended to the buckling of a thin elastic strut supported by a bilinear elastoplastic medium. It is demonstrated that the form of localization has much in common with the buckling of struts on linear and nonlinear elastic foundations in that the localized response, which is of the greatest practical significance, is accompanied by a myriad of associated less significant solutions including periodic ones. Special shooting techniques are developed to deal with the problem of finding the localized solutions from amongst all competing possibilities.