Abstract: The buckling and post-buckling behaviors of a column under distributed load are discussed in this paper. Based on the large deformation theory and considering the axial extension of the column, the equilibrium equations with geometric nonlinearity of an elastic column subjected to distributed load are established. By using shooting method and analytical continuation, the nonlinear boundary-value problem is solved numerically. The post-bucking configuration and equilibrium paths of the column are obtained.

Key words: extensible beam, large deflection, shooting method, post-buckig, equilibrium path