Abstract
The thermal buckling problem for simply supported inhomogeneous rectangular plates subjected to nonuniform heat supply is investigated for several kinds of in-plane boundary conditions. It is assumed that inhomogeneous material properties such as the coefficient of linear thermal expansion α, the thermal conductivity λ, and Young's modulus of elasticity E are changed in the thickness direction with the power law of the coordinate variable, while Poisson's ratio is assumed to be constant. Critical buckling loads are obtained by the 1-term approximated Galerkin method. Effects of the inhomogeneous material properties, aspect ratio and width-to-thickness ratio on critical buckling temperature are examined.
