Mechanics of planar beams focusing on buckling phenomena

A methodology for the analysis of the mechanical behaviour of beams is presented, which relies on the lemma of stroboscopy. This problem traces back to Euler's work. Starting from a discrete model of the shape of the beam, stroboscopy enables us to built a continuous model for the variation of the angular position along the corrugated beam. The angular position is characterised as the solution of a differential equation. The main originality of the work is the study of buckling conditions of corrugated beams. (C) 2000 Academie des sciences/Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.