Material-dependent stability conditions in the buckling of nonlinear elastic bars (Q1087373)

A thorough study of the critical and post-critical large displacement response of simple discrete and continuous systems made from a nonlinear elastic material, is presented. Simple material-dependent stability conditions are established, whose application does not require the solution of the intractable nonlinear differential equations of equilibrium. The predominent role of the nonlinear component of the curvature on the buckling mechanism of the foregoing systems, is revealed. Moreover, it is found that elastic systems which were considered as exhibiting post-buckling strength might be imperfection sensitive, if the effect of material nonlinearity is taken into account. An approximate but very efficient analytical approach leading to very reliable results is derived for establishing the large displacement behavior of a nonlinear elastic cantilever bar. The degree of accuracy of this approach is checked by comparing it with the ''exact'' numerical solution of Runge Kutta. The numerical results presented herein contribute to our understanding of this problem and at the same time show the efficiency, reliability and range of applicability of the proposed approach.