Snap-back of buckled triangular structure under rotation control at one vertex

This paper studies the snap-back of the buckled triangular structure, which consists of three clamped-clamped elasticas. Here the rotation control is applied at one vertex, where the slopes of two clamped-clamped elasticas at the vertex are controlled. The deformation of the buckled triangular structure is obtained by the stiffness-curvature curves of three clamped-clamped elasticas. In this way, the relation between the external moment and rotation at the vertex of the buckled triangular structure is obtained. The critical points where snap-back occurs under rotation control are identified with three branches of the moment-rotation curve, including two saddle-node bifurcation points and two boundary points. Removing the external moment after the snap-back, the buckled triangular shape is still symmetrical, but the symmetry axis after the snap-back changes. In addition, the chiral shape is found to be unstable based on the moment-rotation curve, but the chiral shape can possibly become stable when more constraints exist such as in the cellular structure. The study in this paper can provide insight into the snap-back of the elasticas with several constraints. [Figure not available: see fulltext.].