Existence of positive solutions of a fourth-order boundary value problem

Abstract We consider the fourth-order boundary value problem u ″ ″ = f ( t , u , u ″ ) , 0 t 1 u ( 0 ) = u ( 1 ) = u ″ ( 0 ) = u ″ ( 1 ) = 0 where f(t, u, p) = au − b p + ∘(∣(u, p)∣) near (0, 0), and f(t, u, p) = cu − dp + ∘(∣(u, p)∣) near ∞. We give conditions on the constants a, b, c, d that guarantee the existence of positive solutions. The proof of our main result is based upon global bifurcation techniques.