On a stability criterion for creep

Stability in the presence of creep has been studied by different authors; some of these investigations were made as much as ten years ago.

The majority of the published papers are concerned with problems of the stability of longitudinally compressed rods, since this represents the simplest formulation of the problem by which many of the particular characteristics of stability can be elucidated.

It has to be noted that there exists a series of principally different formulations of the problems of stability in the presence of creep. In this paper, consideration will be restricted to stability of rectilinear forms of equilibrium.