Post-buckling and snap-through behavior of inclined slender beams

Based on the geometrical nonlinear theory of large deflection elastic beams, the governing differential equations of post-buckling behavior of clamped-clamped inclined beams subjected to combined forces are established. By using the implicit compatibility conditions to solve the nonlinear statically indeterminate problems of elastic beams, the strongly nonlinear equations formulated in terms of elliptic integrals are directly solved in the numerical sense. When the applied force exceeds the critical value, the numerical simulation shows that the inclined beam snaps to the other equilibrium position automatically. It is in the snap-through process that the accurate configurations of the post-buckling inclined beam with different angles are presented, and it is found that the nonlinear stiffness decreases as the midpoint displacement is increased according to our systematical analysis of the inward relations of different buckling modes. The numerical results are in good agreement with those obtained in the experiments.