249

Buckling of flat plates under bending and shear

C A Featherston and C Ruiz

Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford

Abstract: Extensive work has been carried out to determine expressions for the critical buckling
loads of flat plates under the elementary load cases of shear, compression and bending, and combi-
nations of these three. Existing solutions are based on constant stress levels throughout the plate,
but no theoretical solution or design rules exist for more complex situations. Finite element analysis
is often therefore used to solve more complicated cases. This paper outlines a programme of work
that has been undertaken to compare collapse loads predicted by theoretical, experimental and finite
element analysis predicted collapse loads for the case of a flat rectangular plate under combined shear
and bending.

Keywords: buckling, flat plate, bending and shear, finite element analysis

NOTATION normally followed is to refer the problem to that of an

elementary panel with simple, uniform stress fields and
a length of longer side of plate to use standard formulae.
b length of shorter side of plate An alternative method of determining the buckling
E Young’s modulus load of thin shells under complex load cases is to use
K bending buckling stress parameter finite element analysis. This has the advantages of
b allowing more difficult boundary conditions to be mod-
K shear buckling stress parameter
s elled and loads to be applied as they exist in situ, thereby
R ratio of bending stress present to the critical
b recreating varying stress fields within the panel. The
stress in pure bending
R ratio of shear stress present to the critical stress analysis can also be used to determine the post-buckled
s behaviour of the shell.
in pure shear
t thickness of plate One particular case of interest is that of a fan blade,
which comprises two curved panels connected along
m Poisson’s ratio their two axial edges, subjected to combined bending
and shear. In order to examine this problem it has been
simplified to two flat plates, each fixed at one end, simply
1 INTRODUCTION supported along two sides and loaded at the opposite
end to produce the required stress distribution. This
paper details a series of experiments to determine buck-
Many aeroengine components consist of thin-walled
ling loads for plates with three different aspect ratios.
shells under loads which can potentially cause failure by
These results are compared with those obtained using
buckling. These loads comprise combinations of com-
existing theory and a finite element package, to deter-
pression, shear and bending forces. Generic to all of
mine the accuracy and advantages and disadvantages of
these cases is the existence of stress gradients across
these methods.
the shells.
Extensive work has been carried out to determine
theoretical solutions to such problems for shells under
pure shear, bending, compression and combined loads, 2 TESTING
by either direct solution of the shell differential equations
or by the use of energy methods such as that of 2.1 Specimens
Rayleigh–Ritz. However, no solutions exist for more
The test plates were manufactured from duralumin to
complex cases. When using these solutions the procedure
BS 1470 Grade 6082 T6. This was selected as it has a
The MS was received on 4 April 1996 and was accepted for publication low Young’s modulus combined with a high elastic limit,
on 29 July 1997. allowing it to buckle elastically at a relatively low load.
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250 C A FEATHERSTON AND C RUIZ

Three different sizes of plates were tested, giving three
different aspect ratios: aspect ratio 1 (100 mm
wide×100 mm long×0.55 mm thick), aspect ratio 1.5
(100 mm wide×150 mm long×0.55 mm thick) and
aspect ratio 2 (100 mm wide×200 mm long×0.55 mm
thick).
2.2 Test rig
The test rig used was as shown in Fig. 1. The plate was
clamped firmly to the rig along one short edge by bolting
through it. The simply supported edge condition for the
two long edges was created using two knife edges
between which the plate was trapped, which could be
altered by means of adjusting screws to vary the distance
between them. Slip gauges were then used to set the
clearance to 0.1 mm. The rig was bolted to the baseplate
of the INSTRON 4204 testing machine. The remaining
short edge to which the load was to be applied was
trapped between two clamping pieces, again bolting
through the plate. These were then attached to the cross-
head of INSTRON.
The INSTRON automated testing software (Series
IX ) was used to program the test, thereby eliminating
the potential variation between experiments. This also
recorded the relationship between shear force and
in-plane displacement, measuring the load using a 5 kN
load cell and displacement with the inbuilt extensometer.
Out-of-plane displacement was monitored using a dis-
placement transducer positioned to coincide with the
anticipated peak of the first buckle. The results were
stored by a transient recorder into which was also sent
a signal corresponding to the in-plane load taken from
four strain gauges stuck to the crosshead attachment (see
Fig. 1). The load on the plate was increased linearly by
moving the crosshead at a speed of 1.0 mm/min and the
results sampled at a rate of 10 points/s.
The shadow moiré technique was also used to provide
a full-field representation of the out-of-plane displace-
ment. This has the advantage that it is non-contacting
and therefore does not affect the buckling of the plate.
A set of gratings (20 lines/mm) was projected on to the
surface of the plate using a standard slide projector.
Double exposure photography was then used first to take
a photograph of the lines on the undeformed plate and
then to superimpose the image of the deformed lines
produced by loading the plate to create an interference
pattern representative of the out-of-plane displacement.
In this particular case the technique was used simply to
allow the buckling pattern to be studied and not to meas-
ure the out-of-plane displacements, although this would
be possible.
2.3 Results
Table 1 gives the experimentally measured buckling
loads. Ten plates were tested for each aspect ratio. The
force–displacement plots are presented in Figs 2 and 3.
Two types of plot are shown, firstly for displacement in
the direction of loading (in-plane) and secondly out-of-
plane displacement. Examples are included for each
aspect ratio.
3 THEORY
The buckling of rectangular plates with mixed boundary
conditions under bending, shear or a combination of
these loads has been studied by various people.
3.1 Shear
Southwell and Skan (1) solved the differential equation
for the equilibrium of a plate to obtain the critical load
of an infinitely long plate with either clamped or simply
supported edges. Other researchers have since used
energy methods to obtain similar solutions for plates of
finite length. This work has shown that the critical stress
of a plate in buckling can be calculated from an equation

Table 1 Plate buckling loads

Buckling load (N )

Aspect ratio 1 1.5 2

Test 1 1100 570 430

Test 2 940 610 350
Test 3 890 610 380
Test 4 810 550 420
Test 5 805 590 400
Test 6 810 710 390
Test 7 820 520 530
Test 8 820 450 440
Test 9 870 540 540
Test 10 820 580 450
Fig. 1 Testing rig
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 BUCKLING OF FLAT PLATES UNDER BENDING AND SHEAR 251

Fig. 2 Experimental relationship between in-plane displacement and load

Fig. 3 Experimental relationship between out-of-plane displacement and load

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252 C A FEATHERSTON AND C RUIZ

of the form: 3.2 Bending

AB
K p2E t 2 For the case of a plate with simply supported edges
t = s (1)
cr 12(1−m2) b Timoshenko and Gere (5) used the principle of conser-
vation of energy and a deflection in the form of a double
where trigonometric function to solve the problem of a rec-
a=length of longer side of plate tangular plate compressed linearly by varying edge
b=length of shorter side of plate forces. For the specific case of pure bending, the critical
t=thickness of plate load can be calculated using the formula:
E=Young’s modulus
AB
K p2E t 2
K =shear buckling stress parameter s = b (2)
s cr 12(1−m2) b
m=Poisson’s ratio
where
K varies according to the boundary condition and
s
aspect ratio. In the case of the boundary condition where K =bending buckling stress parameter
b
two opposite edges are clamped and two edges simply K also varies according to the boundary condition and
supported, this equation was first solved by Iguchi (2) b
aspect ratio. Values of K are given for various aspect
using energy methods. By neglecting the antisymmetric b
ratios in Table 4.
mode, however, he overestimated the values of K for all
s
values except that of K =12.6 with an aspect ratio of
s
unity. Leggett (3) also used energy methods to solve this 3.3 Shear and bending
problem but the solution proved difficult to calculate.
The most accurate solution to date was proposed by For a plate with simply supported edges, an interaction
Cook and Rockey (4) who used a double Fourier series curve for critical combinations of shear and bending for
to express the deflection of the plate to be used in the a plate of infinite length was produced by Way (6). The
energy equations. They considered both symmetric and deflection function of the plate was taken as a double
antisymmetric modes, which result in lower values of K , infinite series and energy methods were used. The inter-
s action equation was found to be
as shown in Table 2.
Cook and Rockey (4) also looked at the case of a R2+R2=1 (3)
rectangular plate with one edge clamped and three edges b s
where
simply supported, again using a Fourier series to rep-
resent the deflection of the plate in the energy equations. R =ratio of bending stress present to the critical stress
b
The resulting values of K are as shown in Table 3. in pure bending
s
Table 2 A comparison of values of K for a plate with opposite edges clamped
s
Aspect ratio
Buckling
Edge condition mode Infinity 3 1.5 1

Two long edges Cook and Rockey Symmetric 8.98 9.61 11.15 12.60
clamped, two Antisymmetric 8.98 9.62 10.81 14.24
short edges
simply supported Iguchi Symmetric 8.99 9.61 11.12 12.28

Two short edges Cook and Rockey Symmetric 5.35 6.13 7.83 12.60
clamped, two Antisymmetric 5.35 9.33 14.24
long edges
simply supported Iguchi Symmetric 5.35 6.17 7.78 12.28

Table 3 Values of K for a rectangular plate with one edge clamped

s
Aspect ratio

Edge condition Infinity 5 3 2 1.5 1.25 1.11 1

One short edge 5.35 5.58 — 6.72 7.59 8.57 9.66 10.98
clamped, three edges
simply supported

One long edge 7.07 — 7.96 8.43 9.31 9.85 10.38 10.98
clamped, three edges
simply supported

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 BUCKLING OF FLAT PLATES UNDER BENDING AND SHEAR 253

Table 4 Values of K for a rectangular plate with all edges 4.1 Model
b
simply supported
The mesh for each plate was constructed from 5 mm square
a/b 0.5 0.6 0.667 0.75 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.5 2.0 elements. The elements used were the quadrilateral
elements S4R5 and S8R5 which behave in a manner con-
K 25.6 24.1 23.9 24.1 24.4 25.6 25.6 24.1 23.9
b sistent with thin shell theory. The S4R5 element is a four-
noded element that utilizes linear equations to describe the
behaviour of each edge. Following calculation of the dis-
placement at each node, stresses and strains are determined
R =ratio of shear stress present to the critical stress at one central integration point (instead of the standard
s
in pure shear four points) and then extrapolated to give the values at
For the case of a duralumin alloy rectangular plate, with each node. The nodes have five degrees of freedom, three
width b=100 mm and thickness t=0.55 mm, for aspect displacements and two in-surface rotations. This element
ratios of 1, 1.5 and 2, the critical buckling loads are as has the advantage of a shorter calculation time due to the
shown in Fig. 4. These have been calculated using the smaller number of nodes and fewer integration points, but
above formulae. In the case of pure shear, Cook and this results in reduced accuracy.
Rockey’s buckling stress parameters for the boundary The S8R5 element has eight nodes. Edge behaviour is
conditions of two short edges clamped, and two long modelled using quadratic equations. Reduced inte-
edges simply supported and one short edge clamped, gration is again used, with four integration points
instead of the standard eight. The degrees of freedom
three edges simply supported have been used.
are the same as for the S4R5 element; S8R5, however,
provides a markedly more accurate model.
4 FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS
4.2 Boundary conditions
The finite element analysis carried out as part of this The boundary conditions can be described by reference
work was performed using the ABAQUS program. to Fig. 5. The first three degrees of freedom represent

Fig. 4 A comparison of theoretical buckling loads for varying boundary conditions

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254 C A FEATHERSTON AND C RUIZ

This was used to connect together all nodes along the

edge, and the load and degrees of freedom were then
applied to the corner node only. However, when this
type of restraint was used, the plate did not respond to
changes in the boundary conditions. Secondly, a beam
attached to the end of the plate was modelled, to which
the shear load was applied at one end. The elements were
5 mm long and two types of beam were used: B31, a
two-noded linear beam, and B32, a three-noded quad-
ratic beam, the type depending on the shell element to
which it was to be connected.

Fig. 5 Degrees of freedom 4.3 Pre-buckling analysis

displacements and the last three, rotations. Edge 1 of
the plate was restricted in all six degrees of freedom to
model a clamped condition. Out-of-plane displacement
3 and rotation 4 in edges 2 and 3 were prevented to
represent simple support. It was not possible to model
exactly the experimental boundary conditions of edge 4
to which the shear load was applied, since this was
beyond the capability of the program. Therefore two
approximations were used to provide upper and lower
limits with which to compare the experimental results.
The first set of boundary conditions restricted out-of-
plane displacement 3 and all rotations (4, 5 and 6). These
should provide an upper limit to the buckling loads since
the boundary conditions act to make the system stiffer
than is actually the case. The second set additionally
allow rotation 6 and should give lower values of critical
load than those found experimentally since this reduces
the stiffness of the system.
The constraint between nodes on edge 4 was also mod-
elled in two different ways. Firstly, the multipoint
restraint TIE which makes all active degrees of freedom
equal at the nodes to which it is applied was utilized.
The critical buckling load of the plates is calculated by
ABAQUS using classical eigenvalue buckling analysis.
ABAQUS performs buckling analysis using a linear per-
turbation procedure. First the stiffness matrix at the state
corresponding to the base state loading on the structure
is stored and then a small perturbation or live load is
applied. In this case the base state is the unloaded con-
dition and the matrix used is the original stiffness matrix.
The program then derives the initial stress matrix due to
the live load and an eigenvalue calculation is performed
to determine a multiplier to the live load at which the
structure becomes unstable. Thus the buckling load can
be calculated. Table 5 shows the buckling loads corre-
sponding to the first positive eigenvalue calculated by
ABAQUS for each combination of boundary condition,
aspect ratio and element type. Figures 6 to 8 are contour
plots illustrating the out-of-plane displacement at the
point of buckling for each plate for the boundary con-
dition on edge 4 of degrees of freedom 1, 2 and 6. The
contours are given for the models based on S8R5
elements, with a beam-type constraint on edge 4, those
for S4R5 elements being almost identical in shape. The
contour plots for those models based on a multipoint

Table 5 ABAQUS buckling loads

Buckling load (N )
Loading Degrees of
mechanism Aspect ratio freedom S8R5 elements S4R5 elements

Multiple point 151 1, 2 1168 1202

constraint 1, 2, 6 1168 1202

1.551 1, 2 714 726

1, 2, 6 714 726

251 1, 2 562 568

1, 2, 6 562 568

Beam 151 1, 2 1166 1204

1, 2, 6 804 823

1.551 1, 2 714 726

1, 2, 6 446 475

251 1, 2 562 570

1, 2, 6 333 339

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 BUCKLING OF FLAT PLATES UNDER BENDING AND SHEAR 255

Fig. 6 Out-of-plane displacement contour with aspect ratio 151, degrees of freedom 1, 2, 6

constraint on edge 4 are not shown since this model does
not respond to changes in boundary conditions.
4.4 Post-buckling analysis
The post-buckling load–displacement analysis, which
allows imperfection sensitivity to be studied by per-
turbing the perfect geometry in the form of the initial
buckling mode (as calculated by the eigenvalue analysis)
and investigating the response, was carried out using the
Riks method. This uses non-linear static equilibrium
equations to solve unstable problems, where the load–
displacement response may be such that either the load
or the displacement may decrease as the solution evolves.
Table 6 shows the initial post-buckled in-plane stiff-
ness of each plate predicted by the Riks analysis (dis-
placement being measured in the direction in which the
force is applied ). The analysis has been carried out using
the model of the plate loaded through a beam as
described previously, since this was felt to be the closest
approximation to the experiment. The results are pre-
sented for each of the three aspect ratios and in each
case both types of element have been used.
C02096 © IMechE 1998
5 INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS
5.1 Experimental results
Pre-buckling analysis—the load versus out-of-plane dis-
placement plots which were used to detect the buckling
point of each plate—are shown in Fig. 3. In each case,
buckling is characterized by a decrease in gradient, indi-
cating a reduction in lateral stiffness. The exact point of
buckling is characterized in the case of the plate with a
251 aspect ratio by a sudden, temporary change in the
direction of the displacement. However, as the aspect
ratio of the plates decreases and they become stiffer it
becomes more difficult to identify. With an aspect ratio
of 1.551, there is sometimes a step change in deflection,
but this does not always occur. In the case of a 151
aspect ratio, the gradient of the plot simply decreases
gradually over an increase in load of approximately
200 N. In these cases the buckling load is found by
taking the intersection of tangents to the pre- and post-
buckling gradients. This becomes increasingly difficult at
low aspect ratios, since, after buckling, the displaced
contour of the plate increases its stiffness, thereby caus-
ing the gradient to increase again, making the initial
post-buckling gradient less apparent.
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256 C A FEATHERSTON AND C RUIZ

Fig. 7 Out-of-plane displacement contour with aspect ratio 1.551, degrees of freedom 1, 2, 6

Table 6 ABAQUS predicted post-buckled in-plane stiffness
In-plane stiffness (N/mm)
Aspect ratio S8R5 elements S4R5 elements
151 4888
1.551 1763
251 859
In all cases, the out-of-plane displacement occurs in
the same direction, although solution of the differential
equation indicates that it could occur in either. However,
as the displacement transducer was always placed on the
same side of the plate, and buckling corresponds to a
state of instability, the small force exerted by the trans-
ducer on the plate could have caused it to deflect in this
direction.
Examination of the force versus out-of-plane displace-
ment graphs for several plates shows that an increased
initial gradient (indicating a higher lateral stiffness)
results in a higher buckling load. The spread of results
therefore reflects variations in the lateral stiffness of each
individual plate. The possibility that this could be due
to differences in the modulus of the material, introduced
during rolling of the plate, was eliminated by taking
samples of the plate cut in the rolling direction and trans-
Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 212 Part C
verse to it and measuring stress versus strain. Young’s
modulus was found to be the same in each direction.
Alternatively, the stiffness could have been affected by
initial out-of-plane displacements caused either by slight
initial curvature of the plate or misalignment within the
4929
1777 rig, particularly with respect to the direction of loading.
862 Due to the clearances required, e.g. along the simply
supported edges to allow the plate to slide over the knife
edges and around the holes used for clamping the rig to
the baseplate of the INSTRON, the alignment of each
individual plate could not be guaranteed. Thin plate
bending theory is based on deflections of less than a
plate thickness, which in this case is 0.55 mm; therefore
very small deviations from a completely flat plate could
be expected to affect its behaviour profoundly. This is
in direct conflict with previous theory which charac-
terized flat plates as being non-imperfection sensitive.
Figure 2 shows the experimental relationship between
shear load and in-plane displacement of the edge to
which the force is applied, in the direction of loading.
This indicates that, during initial loading, displacement
increases with small increases in load. This is due to the
take up of any clearances in the rig. Following this, the
stiffness levels out, reducing only slightly over the period
of loading. There is no substantial drop in stiffness corre-
sponding to the point of buckling.
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 BUCKLING OF FLAT PLATES UNDER BENDING AND SHEAR 257

Fig. 8 Out-of-plane displacement contour with aspect ratio 251, degrees of freedom 1, 2, 6

5.2 Theoretical analysis
5.2.1 Pre-buckling analysis
Figure 9 shows the experimental buckling loads com-
pared with theoretical solutions for plates in shear with
two short edges clamped, two long edges simply sup-
ported; in shear with one short edge clamped, three edges
simply supported; in bending with all edges simply sup-
ported, and in combined bending and shear with all
edges simply supported.
The theoretical values calculated for pure shear only
can be seen to be much higher than the experimental
results for both types of boundary conditions and all
aspect ratios, as would be expected, since only part of
the load case is being considered. Since compression is
normally the major mechanism causing collapse, a theor-
etical model that does not incorporate compression will
always substantially overestimate the buckling load.
Cook and Rockey’s solution also proposes that as the
aspect ratio increases from 151, the effect of the bound-
ary conditions on the loaded edges is significantly
reduced, until with aspect ratio 251, the calculated buck-
ling load for a simply supported edge and that for a
clamped edge are the same. The ABAQUS model shows
C02096 © IMechE 1998
this not to be the case, with the percentage reduction in
buckling load increasing from 32 to 41 per cent as the
aspect ratio increases from 151 to 251.
In contrast to this overestimation of the buckling load
for the case of shear only, the values of the critical load
calculated by considering bending only are found to
underestimate greatly the experimentally found results.
There are two main reasons for this. Firstly, the calcu-
lations are based on the worst case, i.e. the bending
moment found at the clamped edge of the plate being
applied uniformly over the whole plate. While this is
clearly very conservative, it is not possible to use, for
example, the average moment, since in cases of stability
the effect of an average uniform moment is obviously
not the same as that of an equivalent linearly increasing
one. Secondly, this case is based on theory developed
for simply supported plates, while the experiment was
carried out on plates with one edge clamped, two edges
simply supported and one edge partially restrained.
Clearly the boundary conditions found in the experiment
will increase the stiffness of the plate in relation to the
case of a plate simply supported on all sides. Therefore
the theoretical case will be an underestimate.
From the calculated buckling loads for combined
shear and bending, it can be seen that the buckling load
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258 C A FEATHERSTON AND C RUIZ
Fig. 9 Comparison of theoretical, ABAQUS and experimental results
is limited by the effect of the bending moment, which on
its own gives the lowest value of critical load. The effect
of the shear load on the combined loading case is to
increase slightly the buckling load. This is due to the fact
that shear loading creates diagonal tensile membrane
stresses which strengthen the plate against the compress-
ive effect of the bending moment. As the collapse load
calculated for bending alone is an underestimate, the
figure for shear and bending is also an underestimate.
It can therefore be seen that existing theoretical solu-
tions can be used to determine broad limits for the buck-
ling stresses of plates under complex load applications.
However, the user must be aware of the limitations of
the calculations performed and be able to identify
whether the results provide an upper or a lower limit.
The limits will not be accurate, however, since they are
based on the assumption that the stresses are evenly dis-
tributed and the solutions for the specific boundary con-
ditions required may not exist.
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5.3 Finite element analysis
5.3.1 Pre-buckling analysis
Figure 9 shows the relationship between the experimen-
tal buckling loads and those predicted by the ABAQUS
eigenvalue analysis, for two sets of boundary conditions.
As stated previously, neither set describes exactly the
experimental conditions. Ideally, the edge to which the
load is applied should be allowed degrees of freedom 1,
2 and 6, except at the corner where the plate is connected
to the crosshead of the INSTRON. Here, displacement
in direction 2 should be prevented. Introduction of this
complication into the ABAQUS analysis unfortunately
produces a model that is outside the capabilities of the
program. The experimental set-up, however, is closer to
the case with degrees of freedom 1, 2 and 6. The results
should therefore fall nearer to this line, but slightly above
it, indicating an increased stiffness introduced by fixing
one corner. This is seen to be the case.
C02096 © IMechE 1998
 BUCKLING OF FLAT PLATES UNDER BENDING AND SHEAR
5.3.2 Post-buckling analysis
Figure 10 compares the experimental and ABAQUS pre-
dicted load displacement relationships for post-buckled
plates with different aspect ratios. An elastic–plastic
material model has been used to allow for yielding.
Examination of the figure shows good correlation
between experimental and Riks analysis, which is shown
for the model with degrees of freedom 1, 2 and 6, pro-
vided that the effect of any initial movement of the rig
is taken into account. Since the model is not as stiff as
the experimental plate along the upper edge (due to
movement being allowed in direction 2), at high loads
collapse of this edge can occur in the analysis, which
would not be the case in the experiment and so the
ABAQUS plot falls below the test plot, the calculated
displacement for each load being greater.
The post-buckled out-of-plane displacement profile as
produced using the moiré technique of a plate with
aspect ratio 1.551 is presented in Fig. 12. The inter-
ference pattern can be compared with the Riks contour
plot shown in Fig. 11. Results from both the experiment
and the Riks analysis show a deformation pattern in the
form of two well-formed buckles, one large and one
small. In the Riks analysis a further buckle with very
Fig. 10 Post-buckling load versus in-plane displacement: a comparison of ABAQUS Riks analysis and
experimental results
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259
small amplitude is also formed; however, this is not
shown in the experiment. This is probably due to the
fact that the gratings used to create the moiré fringes
were not fine enough to create a fringe corresponding to
such a small perturbation. The orientation of the remain-
ing buckles predicted using the Riks analysis is seen to
correspond with the experiment. The larger buckle is
also in the same position for both the Riks analysis and
experiment, but the small buckle has moved to the right
in the experiment, further away from the clamped end
than is predicted using ABAQUS. This is due to prob-
lems in modelling the boundary conditions accurately.
A similar correlation of out-of-plane displacement con-
tours is seen for plates with aspect ratios of 251 and 151.
6 CONCLUSIONS
6.1 Specific
1. Application of existing theoretical solutions to the
problem of shear loading in rectangular plates caused
by a force applied across one end results in an undere-
stimation of the buckling force.
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260 C A FEATHERSTON AND C RUIZ

Fig. 11 Post-buckling displacement contour by ABAQUS Riks analysis with aspect ratio 1.551

Fig. 12 Post-buckling displacement contour by moiré fringes with aspect ratio 1.551

2. The boundary conditions of a plate loaded in shear bending it not severely affected by buckling. It should
and bending, particularly at the edge to which the not therefore cause catastrophic failure.
force is applied, are important in calculating the
critical load for all aspect ratios. This was previously
thought only to be the case for low aspect ratios. 6.2 General
3. The buckling of a plate under shear and bending is
sensitive to imperfections such as misalignment and 1. Application of theoretical solutions to cases of flat
curvature of the plate. plates under complex load cases can provide limits to
4. The load-carrying capacity of a plate under shear and the buckling load.
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 BUCKLING OF FLAT PLATES UNDER BENDING AND SHEAR
2. These limits are likely to be very broad since load
cases and boundary conditions will usually be
approximations.
3. The use of theoretical solutions to provide limits for
buckling loads requires the designer to be able to
identify upper and lower limits for each load case.
4. Finite element analysis can be used to provide better
limits for the buckling load of a plate, due to
improved modelling of boundary conditions and dis-
tributed stresses.
5. Finite element analysis is still not able to handle more
complicated boundary conditions.
6. Careful selection of boundary conditions, meshes and
methods of load application is necessary. This may
require several analyses to be performed, making the
procedure lengthy.
7. Eigenvalue analysis can only be used providing buck-
ling occurs within the elastic region.
8. Riks analysis can be used to predict plastic buckling
loads. However, it can only be used to analyse imper-
fect plates.
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261
REFERENCES
1 Southwell, R. V. and Skan, S. W. On the stability under
shearing forces of a flat elastic strip. Proc. R. Soc., 1924,
A105, 582–607.
2 Iguchi, S. Die Knickung der Rechteckigen Platte durch
Schubkrafte. Ing.-Archiv, 1938, IX(1), 1–12.
3 Leggett, D. M. A. The buckling of a square panel under
shear, when one pair of opposite edges is clamped, and the
other pair is simply supported. R+M, 1941, 1991, 62–83.
4 Cook, I. T. and Rockey, K. C. Shear buckling of rectangular
plates with mixed boundary conditions. Aeronaut. Q.,
1963, 14.
5 Timoshenko, S. P. and Gere, J. M. Theory of Elastic
Stability, 1961, pp. 348–439 (McGraw-Hill, New York).
6 Way, S. Stability of rectangular plates under shear and bend-
ing forces. J. Appl. Mechanics, December 1936, 3(4),
131–135.
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