Bifurcation and stability of homogeneous deformations of an elastic body under dead load tractions with Z 2 symmetry

An analysis is given of bifurcation and stability of homogeneous deformations of a homogeneous, isotropic, incompressible elastic body subject to three perpendicular sets of dead-load surface tractions of which two have equal magnitude. A minimization problem is formulated within the framework of non-linear elasticity, which leads to a bifurcation problem with Z ₂ symmetry. Various bifurcation diagrams are deduced by using singularity theory, and stabilities of solution branches are examined.