Thacker, William I.Wang, Chang Y.Watson, Layne T.2013-06-192013-06-191992http://hdl.handle.net/10919/19808A heavy rigid platform is supported by thin elastic legs. The governing equations for large deformations are formulated and solved numerically by homotopy and quasi-Newton methods. Nonlinear phenomena such as non-uniqueness, catastrophe and hysteresis are found. A global critical load for nonlinear stability is introduced.application/pdfenIn CopyrightTechnical reportTR-92-61http://eprints.cs.vt.edu/archive/00000341/01/TR-92-61.pdf