Estimating Method of Buckling Strength of Rectangular Plates Using Selected Eigen-Functions

Abstract

This paper proposes an estimating method of buckling strength of rectangular plates subjected to combined in-plane loads. This method uses a few selected eigen-functions for lateral deflection and in-plane deformation and very accurate results can be obtained in short computation time, if appropriate eigen-functions are determined. The boundary conditions of rectangular plates are either simply supported or clamped along all edges. Using this method, buckling interaction curves are obtained, which are very accurate in comparison with the exact solutions. Through above numerical examples, it is demonstrated that this method is very practical to use at the design stage of ship structures.