Elastic stability of bi-axially loaded rectangular plates with a single circular hole

The finite-element method has been employed to determine the elastic buckling stresses of a bi-axially loaded perforated rectangular plate with dimensions a and b in the x- and y-directions, respectively. The considered perforation is a single circular hole whose center is located along the longitudinal axis of the plate. The considered plate has simply supported edges in the out-of-plane direction and is subjected to bi-axial uniformly distributed end loads (compressive load σ_x in the x-direction, and compressive or tensile load σ_y in the y-direction). Parameters considered in the study are the plate's aspect ratio a/b, the stress ratio ξ between the applied stresses in the y- and x-directions (ξ=σ_y/σ_x), the circular hole size d and location e_x.The study shows that, in most of the considered cases, the bigger the hole size d, the lesser the plate stability and the lesser the buckling stresses. It also shows that the plate aspect ratios, a/b, between 0.6 and 1.2 should be avoided for plates with large holes and negative ξ, due to the large reduction in the buckling stresses. The hole location should also be selected to be away from the loaded edge of the plate as much as possible (better to have e_x/b>1.0) to increase the buckling stresses and improve stability. The study demonstrates also that the increase in tension in the y-direction in bi-axially loaded plate with large hole (d/b>0.4) reduces its stability. This is in contrary to the expected increase in the stability due to the increase in tension which can be seen clearly in the cases of solid plates and plates with small holes.     

Elastic buckling of uniaxially loaded skew plates containing openings

The paper is concerned with elastic buckling behavior of uniaxially loaded skew plates with openings. Simply supported and clamped plates subject to uniaxial compression in the longitudinal direction are studied. Two different shapes of openings, circular and skew of different sizes, are considered. The finite element software package ABAQUS has been employed to analyze the plates. Effects of parameters such as skew angle, size, shape and position of openings and aspect ratio of the plates are examined. Results are presented in the form of plots showing the variation of buckling coefficient against the parameters studied.     

Buckling analysis of stepped plates using modified buckling mode shapes

A new approximate procedure for buckling analysis of simply supported rectangular stepped or perforated plates subjected to uniform edge stresses is formulated. The procedure uses energy method based on modified buckling mode shapes. The change of thickness within a plate is characterized by introducing a stepping index. It is shown that the buckling (vibrational) mode shapes of stepped plates can be predicted by linear combination of various mode shapes of the equivalent flat plates. These buckling mode shapes, in turn, are incorporated to evaluate buckling loads of stepped plates. Some case studies are carried out to demonstrate the accuracy and the versatility of the proposed method by comparing them to the results presented by other researchers.     

Local buckling analysis of pultruded FRP structural shapes subjected to eccentric compression

An analytical stability model for the local buckling of pultruded fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) structural shapes subjected to eccentric compression is presented. The model is based on considering each of these shapes as being composed of a group of orthotropic plates that are linked together. The differential equations that describe the buckling behavior of each of the plates comprising the shape were defined and solved using the Levy's solution. The presented model was used to conduct a parametric study to investigate the effect of the main parameters governing the local buckling behavior of such shapes.     

Finite strip method for the free vibration and buckling analysis of plates with abrupt changes in thickness and complex support conditions

The free vibration problem of a stepped plate supported on non-homogeneous Winkler elastic foundation with elastically mounted masses is formulated based on Hamilton's principle. The stepped plate is modelled by finite strip method. To overcome the problem of excessive continuity of common beam vibration functions at the location of abrupt change of plate thickness, a set of C¹ continuous functions have been chosen as the longitudinal interpolation functions in the finite strip analysis. The C¹ continuous functions are obtained by augmenting the relevant beam vibration modes with piecewise cubic polynomials. As these displacement functions are built up from beam vibration modes with appropriate corrections, they possess both the advantages of fast convergence of harmonic functions as well as the appropriate order of continuity. The method is further extended to the buckling analysis of rectangular stepped plates. Numerical results also show that the method is versatile, efficient and accurate.     

Semi-analytical buckling strength analysis of plates with arbitrary stiffener arrangements

Buckling of plates with arbitrarily oriented, sniped stiffeners is studied. The main objective is to present and validate an approximate, semi-analytical computational model for such plates subjected to in-plane loading. Estimation of the buckling strength is made using the von Mises’ yield criterion for the membrane stress as the strength limit. The formulations derived are implemented in a Fortran computer code, and numerical results are obtained for a variety of plate and stiffener geometries. The model may handle complex plate geometries, by using inclined stiffeners to enclose irregular plate shapes. The method allows for a very efficient analysis. Relatively high numerical accuracy is achieved with low computational efforts. The results are, in most cases, found to be conservative compared to fully nonlinear finite element analysis results.     

Compression tests of longitudinally stiffened plates undergoing distortional buckling

This paper describes a series of compression tests performed on longitudinally stiffened plates fabricated from a mild steel plate of thickness of 4.0 mm with nominal yield stress of 235.0 MPa. The stiffened plates with longitudinal stiffeners of a range of rigidities were tested to failure. The ultimate strengths and performances of the longitudinally stiffened plates in compression undergoing distortional buckling or interaction between local and distortional buckling were investigated experimentally and theoretically. The compression tests indicated that the critical buckling mode was dependent mainly on the rigidity of the longitudinal stiffeners and the width-to-thickness ratio of the sub-panels. A noticeable interaction between local and distortional buckling was also observed for some stiffened plates. A significant post-buckling strength reserve was shown for those sections with distortional buckling and for those sections showing interaction between local and distortional buckling. A limiting strength curve for distortional buckling of longitudinally stiffened plates was studied. Simple design strength formulas in the direct strength method are proposed to account for the distortional buckling and the interaction between local and distortional buckling of longitudinally stiffened plates. The strength curves were compared with the test and FE results conducted. The adequacy of the strength curve was confirmed. A set of conclusions on the buckling behavior of longitudinally stiffened plates was drawn from the experimental studies.     

Vibrations of rectangular plates with elastic intermediate line-supports and edge constraints

A set of static beam functions, which are the solutions of an elastically point-supported beam under a Fourier series of static sinusoidal loads distributed along the length of the beam, are developed as the admissible functions to analyze the vibrations of orthotropic rectangular plates with elastic intermediate line-supports using the Rayleigh–Ritz method. Both the elastic rotational and the elastic translational constraints along the edges of the plate are also considered simultaneously. Unlike conventional admissible functions, this set of static beam functions not only can automatically adjust to the stiffnesses of the intermediate line-supports but also can properly describe the discontinuity of shear forces at the line-supports so that higher accuracy and faster convergence can be expected for the dynamic analysis of such plates. The suggested approach is effective even for various limiting cases by letting the corresponding stiffnesses approach their natural limits of zero or infinity. The present method is theoretically sound and mathematically simple, with each of the static beam functions being only a third-order polynomial plus a sine function. A common and efficient computational program can be compiled because of the fact that a change of the line-support parameters (locations, number and stiffnesses) and the boundary conditions of the plate only results in a corresponding change of the coefficients of the polynomial in the static beam functions. Several numerical examples are presented and the results obtained, where possible, are compared with the known solutions in literature. The present method has proved to be extremely effective for solving the aforementioned problems.     

Optimum design of laminated composite plates to maximize buckling load using MFD method

This paper presents optimal design of simply supported laminated composite plates subject to given in-plane static loads for which the critical failure mode is buckling. The objective function is to maximize the buckling load capacity of laminated plates and the fiber orientation is considered as design variable. The first-order shear deformation theory is used for the finite element analysis. In this paper, the effects of bending–twisting coupling are also included for the buckling optimization. The modified feasible direction method is used as an optimization method. Also, computer programs are coded in MATLAB and Golden Section method is adapted in this program for the optimal design of laminated plates for maximum buckling load. The effect of width-to-thickness ratio, aspect ratio, number of layers, material anisotropy, load ratios (N_y/N_x), uncertainties in material properties and functionally graded materials on the results is investigated and compared.     

Differential quadrature buckling analyses of rectangular plates subjected to non-uniform distributed in-plane loadings

The new version of differential quadrature method (DQM), proposed by the senior author recently, is used to obtain buckling loads of thin rectangular plates under non-uniform distributed in-plane loadings for the first time. Two steps are involved: (1) solve a problem in plane-stress elasticity to obtain the in-plane stress distributions and (2) solve the buckling problem under the loads obtained in step (1). The methodology and procedures are worked out in detail and buckling problems with loadings of non-uniform distributions are studied. Numerical studies are performed and the DQ results are compared well with analytical solutions and finite element results. This fact indicates that the DQ method can be employed for obtaining buckling loads of plates with other combinations of boundary conditions subjected to non-uniform distributed loadings.     

Vibration and buckling of plates with mixed boundary conditions

This paper deals with the vibration or buckling of thin plates with either mixed boundary conditions or discontinuous boundary conditions using the spline element method.

To demonstrate the accuracy of the method, several examples are solved, and results are compared with those obtained by other numerical methods. The effects of partial rotational constraints and angles of skew on frequencies and buckling loads of isotropic skew plates are also investigated.     

Stability analysis of simply-supported rectangular plates under non-uniform uniaxial compression using rigorous and approximate plane stress solutions

The non-classical problem of buckling of a simply-supported rectangular plate due to various types of non-uniform compressive edge loads is analysed here. For each case, the elasticity solution for the internal in-plane stress field is obtained rigorously using a superposition of Airy's stress functions and also approximately using extended Kantorovich method. Subsequently, the convergent buckling loads are obtained using Galerkin's method. Results are presented to highlight the dependence of the total buckling load and the corresponding buckled shape on the edge load distribution, as well as to illustrate the applicability of the approximate plane stress solutions.     

弹性半空间地基上四边自由矩形板的弯曲解析解

采用双重Fourier变换,分析得到弹性半空间受任意竖向荷载作用下的静力积分变换解,与四边自由矩形板的弯曲解析解相结合,得出弹性半空间地基上四边自由矩形板受任意竖向荷载作用的弯曲解析解。给出一些算例结果,与有限元方法给出的计算结果进行了比较,结果吻合良好,证明本文的方法是切实可行的。     

Effect of higher order constitutive terms on the elastic buckling of thin-walled rods

In this paper we revisit an elastic constitutive equation proposed in two previous works and extend it in order to include all higher-order terms on the deformations. Our purpose is to assess the influence of these terms on the elastic buckling of thin-walled rods. The resulting material model was incorporated into a geometrically exact rod formulation and implemented into a nonlinear finite element code. By means of simple numerical examples we show that the higher order terms may play a significant role on the values of the buckling loads and on the post-buckling behavior of thin-walled beams and columns.     

The influence of separation distance on the performance of perforated plates as a blast wave shielding technique

This article presents the results of an experimental investigation into the performance of perforated plates as a blast wave mitigation method in tunnel-like structures. Combinations of three different blockage ratios and three different separation distances (defined as the distance between the perforated plates and target plates) were used during the blast experiments to ascertain the influence of the two variables, while the charge to target plate stand-off distance was kept constant. The results were compared to those obtained during similar test work at a lower separation distance of 25 mm, and also to baseline experiments with no perforated plate at a similar stand-off distance. Results of the blast tests showed that the perforated plates with higher blockage ratios reduced the damage imparted to the target plate. This effect was more significant at the lower separation distances. Increasing the separation distance also reduced the damage for a given blockage ratio and impulse.     

On the contact pressure of circular plates on elastic subgrade

A methematical model is presented based on combined methods for determining the contact pressure of circular plates on elastic subgrades. The proposed numerical approach considers two parameters of the subgrade simultaneously, the modulus of elasticity $\text{E}{}_{\mathrm{s}}$ and the modulus of subgrade reaction $\text{K}$. This approach can be utilized in the design of circular foundations such as oil and water towers, silos, chimneys and other structures of similar nature.     

On the application of the extrapolation techniques in elastic buckling

The critical buckling load of a structure undergoing lateral buckling can be determined experimentally by using the extrapolation or plotting techniques, without having to subject the structure to loading in the vicinity of critical. To achieve this, it is only necessary to have data relating load to a deformation characteristic. A search of the literature reveals that only certain and just a few deformation characteristics such as lateral displacement and/or twist have mostly been used by researchers in this regard. In this paper, the feasibility of application of various deformation variables for experimental determination of the critical buckling load is investigated in case of I-beams with different initial geometrical imperfections undergoing the elastic lateral-distortional mode of buckling. It is demonstrated that lateral displacement of the I-beams is directly coupled with different deformation variables such as web transverse and longitudinal strains, vertical deflection, and angles of twist of top and bottom flanges. Based on these key findings, the Southwell, Massey, Modified, and Meck Plot methods are applied on these various deformation variables, and consequently satisfactory and reliable estimates are obtained for the critical buckling loads. Finally, it may be concluded that the application of the extrapolation techniques does not actually need to be limited to some certain deformation variables.     

A generalized analytical approach to the buckling of simply-supported rectangular plates under arbitrary loads

An analytical approach for the elastic stability of simply-supported rectangular plates under arbitrary external loads is presented which, for the first time, may be described as ‘exact’. This is achieved through the use of exact solutions for the in-plane stresses and the adoption of double Fourier series for the buckled profiles which, together, ensure that accurate results are obtained in the Ritz energy technique. Several cases of plate buckling under direct, shear and bending loads (or their combinations) are studied to show the generality of the proposed approach, with the ensuing results compared with existing data (if available) and with numerical FE results.     

A simplified method for elastic large deflection analysis of plates and stiffened panels due to local buckling

A computational model for analysis of local buckling and postbuckling of stiffened panels is derived. The model provides a tool that is more accurate than existing design codes, and more efficient than nonlinear finite element methods. Any combination of biaxial in-plane compression or tension, shear, and lateral pressure may be analysed. Deflections are assumed in the form of trigonometric function series. The deformations are coupled such that continuity of rotation between the plate and the stiffener web is ensured, as well as longitudinal continuity of displacement. The response history is traced using energy principles and perturbation theory. The procedure is semi-analytical in the sense that all energy formulations are derived analytically, while a numerical method is used for solving the resulting set of equations, and for incrementation of the solution. The stress in certain critical points are checked using the von Mises yield criterion, and the onset of yielding is taken as an estimate of ultimate strength for design purposes.     

Why local damage increases the buckling load of circular plates

Local material damage is often characterised as degradation of material properties. A recent study has discovered a paradoxical phenomenon that clamped circular plates with a local axisymmetric damage may have a buckling load above that of a corresponding perfect plate. This paper describes a finite element investigation into the buckling behaviour of circular plates with a local axisymmetric damage. The paradoxical results of previous researchers are explained, and observations are made regarding the appropriate modelling of local damage.