SUMMARYPresented in this paper is a direct method of analysis of the elastic non-linear behaviour of frames. Emphasis is given to the method's capability of tracing the post-buckling path from a bifurcation point although the method can also trace the non-linear behaviour of frames with eccentricities. The method is proposed as an alternative to the main methods currently in use, the perturbation method and the incremental method. Conditions for equilibrium and stability are developed from a variational approach to the total potential. A finite element approximation is made and an efficient solution technique for the resulting non-linear equations is developed.Results for three frames are given demonstrating good agreement with solutions generated from other approaches.