Unfolding of homoclinic and heteroclinic behaviour in a multiply-symmetric strut buckling problem

A structure exhibiting localized buckle patterns is analysed asymptotically to reveal how such solutions are limited by a restabilizing non-linearity. The calculation reveals the fashion in which solutions become periodic (heteroclinic) in the vicinity of a critical coefficient by way of the propagation of a front, which is found to be a boundary layer linking the two distinct regions (flat and periodic). The predictions are compared against direct numerical solutions and excellent agreement between the two independent methods is found.