THE INTRICATE GLOBAL STRUCTURE OF BUCKLED STATES OF COMPRESSIBLE COLUMNS

Singularity theory and global multiparameter bifurcation theory are combined to show that nonbifurcating buckled states of compressible nonlinearly elastic columns lie on branches having detailed qualitative properties. These properties distinguish the branches globally. Together with a delicate asymptotic analysis they are used to show that the global disposition of solution branches, both bifurcating and not, is strikingly different from that for incompressible columns.