Buckling of a thin annular plate subjected to two opposite locally acting pressures and supported at two opposite points

The paper treats the elastic stability of a thin annular plate with constant thickness. Based on the stress expressions obtained by using the complex Fourier series, the study deals with the asymmetrical buckling of an annular plate which is supported at two opposite points in the outer boundary and is subjected to two opposite locally acting pressures in the vicinity of these two supporting points. By the energy method and direct integration of the strain energy of bending and the work done by the stresses, the analytical expression of the coefficients used to calculate the critical value of the loads had been derived, and then the critical load was found numerically for any ratio of its radii. Since the study deals with a thin plate, some simplifications have been made. The experiments were made for the case of an annular plate with a thickness of 3 mm, outer radius 300 mm and inner radius 100 mm. The difference between the critical load obtained theoretically and calculated numerically and the critical load obtained with experiments is less than 6%.