Axisymmetric buckling of circular Mindlin plates with ring supports

Abstract

This study concerns the axisymmetric buckling of radially loaded circular Mindlin plates with internal concentric ring supports. The edge of the plate is either simply supported or clamped. Based on the Rayleigh-Ritz energy approach, buckling factors are determined and tabulated for plates of various thickness to radius ratios and with either one or two internal concentric rigid ring supports at various radii. The results show that the buckling factors for circular plates with one concentric ring support decrease with increasing thickness-radius ratios due to the increasing shear deformation effect. The effect of shear deformation on the buckling factors for plates with two ring supports is more pronounced than for plates with one ring support. The buckling factors for simply supported circular plates approach those for clamped circular plates when one of the ring supports is located sufficiently close to the edge. The tabulated buckling results should be valuable to designers for some industrial applications. Moreover, accurate and simple buckling formulas are presented for plates without any internal ring support.