Abstract
The author and K. Kondo derived an expression for the potential energy of extensible shearable elastica based on Engesser’s approach in a previous paper. In this paper, a simple method to calculate the post-buckling deformation of extensible shearable elastica is proposed. The potential energy is directly minimized by the “Solver” optimization tool of MS-Excel. The compression buckling loads calculated by the method are consistent with the buckling load equation in the previous paper. The relationship between applied load and deflection is calculated for beams with representative combinations of axial stiffness and shear stiffness. Snap-through behavior is observed in the load-displacement curves of beams with low axial stiffness.
