On non-axisymmetric buckling modes of inhomogeneous circular plates

Unsymmetrical buckling of nonuniform circular plates with elastically restrained edge and subjected to normal pressure is studied in this paper. The asymmetric part of the solution is sought in terms of multiples of the harmonics of the angular coordinate. A numerical method is employed to obtain the lowest load value at which waves in the circumferential direction can appear. The effect of material heterogeneity and boundary on the buckling load is examined. For a plate with elastically restrained edge, the buckling pressure and mode number increase with a rise of spring stiffness. Increasing of the elasticity modulus to the plate edge leads to increasing of the buckling pressure, but the mode number does not change. If the translational flexibility coefficient is small, decreasing of the elasticity modulus to the shell (plate) edge leads to sufficient lowering of the buckling pressure.

A mechanical model reveals that non-axisymmetric buckling lowers the energy barrier associated with membrane neck constriction

Using computational modeling, we show that membrane neck formation, which is essential for scission can be both location and symmetry dependent.

A numerical approach to the elastic/plastic axisymmetric buckling analysis of circular and annular plates resting on elastic foundation

Presented herein is the elastic/plastic axisymmetric buckling analysis of circular and annular plates resting on elastic foundation under radial loading based on a variational numerical method named as variational differential quadrature. To accomplish this aim, a first-order shear deformable plate model is developed in the context of incremental theory of plasticity (IT) (with the Prandtl-Reuss constitutive equations) and the deformation theory of plasticity (DT) (with the Hencky constitutive equations). It is considered that the material of plates exhibits strain hardening characterized by the Ramberg-Osgood relation. Also, the Winkler and Pasternak models are employed in order to formulate the elastic foundation. To implement the variational differential quadrature method, the matrix formulations of strain rates and constitutive relations are first derived. Then, based upon Hamilton's principle and using the variational differential quadrature derivative and integral operators, the discretized energy functional of the problem is directly obtained. Selected numerical results are presented to study the effects of various parameters including thickness-to-radius ratio, elastic modulus-to-nominal yield stress ratio, power of the Ramberg-Osgood relation and parameters of elastic foundation on the elastic/plastic buckling of circular and annular plates subject to different boundary conditions. Moreover, several comparisons are provided between the results of two plasticity theories, i.e. IT and DT. The effect of transverse shear deformation is also highlighted.