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Homoclinic orbits in reversible systems and their applications in mechanics, fluids and optics

A long structural system with an unstable (subcritical)post-buckling response that subsequently restabilizes typically deformsin a cellular manner, with localized buckles first forming and thenlocking up in sequence. As buckling continues over a growing number ofcells, the response can be described by a set of lengthening homoclinicconnections from the fundamental equilibrium state to itself. In thelimit, this leads to a heteroclinic connection from the fundamentalunbuckled state to a post-buckled state that is periodic. Under suchprogressive displacement the load tends to oscillate between twodistinct values. The paper is both a review and a pointer tofuture research. The response is described via a typical system, asimple but ubiquitous model of a strut on a foundation which includesinitially-destabilizing and finally-restabilizing nonlinear terms. Anumber of different structural forms, including the axially-compressedcylindrical shell, a typical sandwich structure, a model of geologicalfolding and a simple link model are shown to display such behaviour. Amathematical variational argument is outlined for determining the globalminimum postbuckling state under controlled end displacement (rigidloading). Finally, the paper stresses the practical significance of aMaxwell-load instability criterion for such systems. This criterion,defined under dead loading to be where the pre-buckled and post-buckledstate have the same energy, is shown to have significance in the presentsetting under rigid loading also. Specifically, the Maxwell load isargued to be the limit of minimum energy localized solutions asend-shortening tends to infinity.

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Cellular Buckling in Long Structures

Spatially confined rigid membranes reorganize their morphology in response to imposed constraints. Slight compression of a rigid membrane resting on a soft foundation creates a regular pattern of sinusoidal wrinkles with a broad spatial distribution of energy. For larger compression, the deformation energy is progressively localized in small regions which ultimately develop sharp folds. We review the influence of the substrate on this wrinkle to fold transition by considering two models based on purely viscous and purely elastic foundations. We analyze and contrast the physics and mathematics of both systems.

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Wrinkle to fold transition: influence of the substrate response

The apparently intractable shape of a fold in a compressed elastic film lying on a fluid substrate is found to have an exact solution. Such systems buckle at a nonzero wave vector set by the bending stiffness of the film and the weight of the substrate fluid. Our solution describes the entire progression from a weakly displaced sinusoidal buckling to a single large fold that contacts itself. The pressure decrease is exactly quadratic in the lateral displacement. We identify a complex wave vector whose magnitude remains invariant with compression.

Compression induced folding of a sheet: an integrable system.

This article is concerned with the nonlinear analysis of the stability of thick elastic bodies subjected to finite elastic deformations. The analysis is based on the theory of small elastic deformations superimposed on a finite elastic deformation. Attention is drawn to methods developed in the stability analysis of fluids and of thin shells and plates which are readily applicable to the present circumstances. The state of development of the nonlinear stability analysis of thick elastic bodies is summarized in order to provide a basis for subsequent studies, and some new results relating to the stability of an elastic plate subjected to a pre-stress associated either with uniaxial thrust or with simple shear in the presence of all-round pressure are discussed. Near-critical modes in the neighbourhood of so-called critical configurations are considered to depend on, for example, a slow time variable, and nonlinear evolution equations for the mode amplitudes are derived both in the case of a monochromatic mode and for a resonant triad of modes. The crucial role of the ‘nonlinear coefficient’ in such an equation in the analysis of stability, imperfection sensitivity and localization is highlighted. An efficient (virtual work) method for the determination of this coefficient is described together with an alternative method based on the calculation of the total energy of a monochromatic near-critical mode. The influence of the boundary conditions and of the form of the pre-stress is examined and explicit calculation of the nonlinear coefficient is provided for the two representative pre-stress conditions mentioned in the above paragraph. It is shown, in particular, that a resonant triad of modes has an effect similar to that generated by the presence of a geometrical imperfection. The Appendices gather together for reference certain expressions which are used in the body of the article. These include expressions, not given previously in the literature, for the components of the tensor of third-order instantaneous elastic moduli in terms of the principal stretches of the deformation in respect of a general form of incompressible isotropic elastic strain-energy function.

Nonlinear stability analysis of pre-stressed elastic bodies

Localized solutions, for the. classical problem of the nonlinear strut (elastica) on the linear elastic foundation, are predicted from double-scale analysis, and confirmed from nonlinear volume-preserving Runge-Kutta runs. The dynamical phase-space analogy introduces a spatial Lagrangian function, valid over the initial post-buckling range, with kinetic and potential energy components. The indefinite quadratic form of the spatial kinetic energy admits unbounded solutions, corresponding to escape from a potential well. Numerical experimentation demonstrates that there is a fractal edge to the escape boundary, resulting in spatial chaos.

N Shiacolas

Papers

Localized Elasticae for the Strut on the Linear Foundation