Dynamic buckling of elastic–plastic beams including effects of axial stress waves

Buckling of axially compressed elastic–plastic beams is discussed. The load is applied instantaneously and remains unaltered during the motion. The effect of stress waves travelling along the beam is taken into account. It is assumed that the material of the beam has linear-strain hardening. A method of solution, based on the Galerkin technique, is proposed; this method is applicable to an arbitrary number of degrees of freedom. Numerical examples are presented.