Compound branching in elastic systems Original Research Article

The compound branching problem of elastic systems is discussed with neither elimination of the passive coordinates nor orthogonalization of the energy function. Critical conditions will be defined and the post-critical equilibrium paths are described. Formulae are derived that are proper for numerical techniques such as the Finite Element method. Applications illustrating the theory for a five rigid-bar model and for the buckling of a spherical shell under hydrostatic pressure will be presented.