Buckling of structural elements has intrigued structural mechanicists for nearly three centuries.  First, Euler studied bar buckling in the mid-eighteenth century.  Then, Bryan treated plate buckling in the late nineteenth century.  Finally, shell buckling was a twentieth-century pursuit of Timoshenko, Donnell, Flugge, von Karman, Tsien, Batdorf, Hoff, Gerard, van der Neut, Thielemann, Koiter, Feodosiev, Singer, Geier, Esslinger, Stein, Almroth, Tennyson, Alfutov, Bushnell, Arbocz, Starnes, and many others.

This graduate text and reference book is directed toward practically oriented struc-tural mechanicists in civil, mechanical, aerospace, and ocean engineering as well as engineering mechanics.  Fundamental buckling behavior is studied for the three most basic of structural elements: one-dimensional bars, two-dimensional plates, and three-dimensional shells.  The approach is a consistent energy-based formulation after Lang-haar,  Emphasized are differences between the three principal sets of equations governing (1) behavior before buckling occurs (equilibrium equations), (2) the onset of buckling (buckling equations), and (3) behavior after buckling occurs (large-deflection equilibrium equations).  The Euler bifurcation buckling load is found for bars, plates, and shells along with the postbuckling behavior to determine the practical significance of the Euler load.  Also studied are contemporary buckling behavior topics such as the effects of prebuckling deformation, initial imperfections, thermal expansion and constraint, eccentric stiffening, and, causing renewed interest in buckling problems, laminated composite materials.  The final topic in each chapter is an introduction to the essence of design for each structural element.