EFFECT OF SHEAR AND COMPRESSIBILITY ON STABILITY OF A HEAVY COLUMN WITH AN END LOAD

Stability boundary and post-critical behaviour of a heavy compressed column is examined. It is assumed that the column axis is compressible and that shear rigidity is finite. It is shown that the eigenvalues of the linearized equilibrium equations are simple. This fact is then used to prove that they determine bifurcation points of the nonlinear equilibrium equations. Post-critical shape of the column is obtained by numerical integration.