Axisymmetric Postbuckling of Orthotropic Thin Tapered Annular Plates

Abstract

This paper explores the geometrically nonlinear postbuckling response of cylin drically orthotropic thin tapered annular plates subjected to inplane radial compressive load at the outer edge. Clamped and simply supported plates with a free hole and a plugged hole have been analysed for the case of linear variation of thickness. The orthogonal point collocation method with zeros of a Legendre polynomial as colloca tion points has been employed to solve nonlinear governing differential equations ex pressed in terms of transverse displacement w and stress function ψ. Results have been presented for three values of annular ratio, five values of taper ratio and four values of orthotropic parameter and their effect on the buckling and postbuckling loads has been investigated.