A shooting method for a nonlinear beam equation (Q2475162)

Consider the boundary value problem \[ \begin{gathered} u^{(4)}(x)- au''(x)+ g(x, u(x))= 0,\quad 0< x<\ell,\\ u''(0)= u''(\ell)= 0,\quad u'''(0)= -f(u(0)),\quad u'''(\ell)= f(u(\ell)),\end{gathered}\tag{\(*\)} \] where \(a\geq 0\), \(f: \mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{R}\) and \(g: \mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{R}\) are continuous. The authors derive conditions on \(g\) and \(f\) guaranteeing that \((*)\) has at least one classical solution. The proof is based on a shooting argument, that is, a function \(\phi: \mathbb{R}^2\to \mathbb{R}^2\) is defined such that the set of solutions of \((*)\) can be mapped one-to-one into the set of zeros of \(\phi\).