Thacker, William I.Wang, Chang Y.Watson, Layne T.2013-06-192013-06-191994http://hdl.handle.net/10919/19936A new stability index, the global critical load, is advocated. This index is useful for flexible structures prone to large disturbances such as earthquakes. A symmetric rigid body supported by flexible legs is studied in detail. The nonlinear equilibrium equations are solved and the results show that global stability depends heavily on the height of the mass center and the distance between the legs.application/postscriptenIn CopyrightTechnical reportTR-94-32http://eprints.cs.vt.edu/archive/00000414/01/TR-94-32.ps