Examination of Plate Post-Buckling Behavior

The main results of a number of previous papers by the writers on plate post-buckling behavior are summarized, and additional results for specific plate problems are presented in the form of simple expressions relating load, deflections, end displacements, and stresses. The plates are assumed to be simply supported on the loaded boundaries, and the unloaded edges are either elastically restrained against rotation or completely free. The applied loading may be concentric or eccentric to the center line, and the effects of initial imperfections are taken into account. A multiterm energy approach is used to obtain the buckling stresses, and the buckled form produced by this analysis is then used in a semienergy analysis of the post-buckling behavior. The theoretical results are shown to agree closely with experimental results of the writers and of other researchers.