Buckling disappearance via merging/divergence in a nonlinear three-d.o.f. system with linear constitutive law

The phenomenon of buckling disappearance, occurring in a parameter-dependent family of systems admitting a nontrivial fundamental path, is studied. Two different forms of disappearance are detected, namely: (i) the divergence, in which the critical load continuously tends to infinity, and (ii) the merging, in which two critical loads approach each other, coalesce, and then disappear at a finite value of the critical load. It is shown that the two phenomena can be exhibited by the same mechanical system, when a suitable elasto-geometric parameter is varied. More importantly, it is proved that merging continuously changes into divergence when a second parameter is changed. A paradigmatic system is chosen to illustrate the two forms of buckling, i.e., a three degree-of-freedom spherical pendulum, elastically constrained at the ground, loaded by a transverse force and/or a conservative couple, made of two longitudinal potential forces. The springs are taken elastically linear, to stress the fact that divergence not necessarily calls for introducing a nonlinear constitutive law, as also mentioned in literature. Only a linear bifurcation analysis is carried out here, aimed to find the bifurcation points along the nonlinear fundamental path. However, due to the presence of non-negligible prestrains, such a bifurcation problem is governed by nonlinear algebraic equations, whose number of roots cannot be predicted in advance.