Abstract
A buckling analysis is carried out for inhomogeneous rectangular plates under in-plane compression. It is assumed that inhomogeneous material property of Young's modulus of elasticity is changed in the thickness direction with the power law, while Poisson's ratio is assumed to be constant. Based on the Kirchhoff (or classical thin) plate theory, the fundamental equations system can be derived by introducing the technique of the newly defined position of the reference plane. The critical buckling loads of the simply supported rectangular plate are presented using the derived fundamental relations. Effects of the inhomogeneous Young's modulus of elasticity, material orthotopy, aspect ratio and thickness of the plate are discussed.
