Imperfection sensitivity of plates on thermal environment

Abstract

In this paper a thermal buckling of imperfect plates using Layer Wise (LW) plate model [1] is presented. The model assumes layerwise variation of in-plane displacements and constant transverse displacement through the thickness of the plate, non-linear strain-displacement relations (in von Karman sense) and linear thermo mechanical material properties. The Koiter model for imperfection is adopted. Principle of virtual displacements (PVD) is used to derive Euler-Lagrange differential equations of linearized buckling problem. Euler-Lagrange differential equations are then solved using Navier's analytical solution. The original MATLAB program is coded for analytical solution. The effects of imperfection amplitude, temperature distribution, side to thickness ratio b/a and aspect ratio b/h on critical temperature are analyzed. The accuracy of the numerical model is verified by comparison with the available results from the literature.