ABSTRACT
A rigorous treatment of the load carrying behavior of complex structures consists of three steps: (1) Exact localization of bifurcations in course of the equilibrium path continuation, (2) classification of the singularity and determining the direction(s) of the bifurcated branch(es), and (3) choosing a predictor for initializing the path following procedure in the postbuckling regime. Steps 1 and 2 are well understood from a mathematical point of view. In contrast, step 3 relies essentially on engineering decisions. However, a reliable and robust assessment of highly loaded, imperfection sensitive structures is still a challenging problem for the engineer applying commercial finite element programs.
