Synthesis of waffle plates in the post buckled domain

Abstract Typical of many structural elements, plates retain a considerable amount of strength and stiffness in the post-buckled domain. Utilizing the latent strength and stiffness of the plate, this paper reports on the synthesis of metal and composite waffle plates under mechanical and thermal loads with weight as the objective function. The weight of the waffle plate is reduced as the out-of-plane displacement of a panel of the waffle plate is increased. Several examples under various mechanical and thermal loads are presented to illustrate the synthesis of waffle plates in the linear post-buckled domain.