Secondary buckling of an elastic column with spring supports at clamped ends (Q1270795)

We study the postbuckling behavior of an elastic column with spring supports of equal stiffness of extensional type at both clamped ends. Attention is focused on spring stiffnesses near the critical value at which, under axial load, the column becomes critical with respect to two buckling modes simultaneously. By using the Lyapunov-Schmidt-Koiter approach, we show that there are precisely two secondary bifurcation points on each primary postbuckling state for the spring stiffness greater than the critical value. For the spring stiffness less than the critical value, no secondary bifurcation occurs. Asymptotic expansions of the primary and secondary postbuckling states are constructed. The stability analysis indicates that the primary postbuckling state for the spring stiffness greater than the critical value bifurcates from the first buckling load and becomes unstable via the secondary bifurcation from a stable state, i.e., secondary buckling occurs.