IHS ESDU Initial buckling of flat plates under bending and compression or tension. STRUCT 02.04.04

ESDU Struct 02.04.04 gives a graph from which the initial buckling may be predicted of a simply-supported isotropic rectangular plate under a linearly varying direct stress on one pair of opposite edges. Such a stress distribution would arise from the combination of a direct load and bending in the plane of the plate. The graph plots the buckling stress coefficient (in this case the stress on one unloaded edge at initial buckling non-dimensionalised by the modulus of elasticity factored by the square of the width to thickness ratio) against the ratio of the stresses in the unloaded edges. Several curves are given for fixed values of the aspect ratio below 0.6. The range of stress ratio covers uniform compression (when the ratio is unity) through to combined tension and bending with a ratio of -1.3, compression being positive. Also plotted is a curve for the minimum buckling stress coefficient. It is suggested that this latter curve may be used for all plate aspect ratios greater than 2/3. The data apply to a plate with a material having a Poisson's ratio of 0.3. A worked example illustrates the use of the graph.