Euler strut

An Euler strut is an initially straight slender elastic column loaded in axial compression. Its lateral stability depends on bending stiffness, length and endpoint constraints. Euler buckling predicts a loss of straight-configuration stability before material failure only in the appropriate slender elastic regime; it is distinct from crushing or plastic yielding of a short column.

For the angular endpoint conditions $\theta (0)=\theta (1)=0$, take $U=(EI/L){\int }_0^1[{\theta }^{\prime 2}/2-{\pi }^2\lambda (1-\cos \theta )]d\xi$. The Poincaré inequality and $1-\cos t\le t^2/2$ give $U\ge 0$ for $0\le \lambda \le 1$. At $\lambda =1$ a nonzero continuous angle still has strictly positive energy because $1-\cos t<t^2/2$ for $t\ne 0$. Thus the straight state remains the unique global minimum at the critical parameter even though the quadratic variation vanishes on the first sine mode.

Along that mode the energy is ${\pi }^{2}EI{A}^4/(64L)+O(A^6)$ at criticality. For $\lambda >1$ a sufficiently small first-mode variation lowers energy, so the straight state loses local minimality. Near the first threshold, expansion of the Euler strut equation gives $A_0(A_0^2-8{\lambda }_1)=0$ when $\lambda =1+ϵ{\lambda }_1$ and $\theta \sim \sqrt{ϵ}{A}_0\sin \pi \xi$. The resulting supercritical pitchfork bifurcation is stabilized by the same positive quartic term. A zero second variation is therefore an inconclusive quadratic test, not proof of failure of minimization.