Inelastic buckling of rectangular sandwich plates

Abstract

An analytical study of buckling of rectangular sandwich plates, stressed uniaxially by uniform shortening beyond the elastic limits of component materials, is presented. The analysis is based on the inelastic behavior according to both the J2-incremental and J2-deformation theories of plasticity. Taking the loaded edges as simply supported, the governing equations are solved for (a) plates simply supported on all four sides, and (b) plates simply supported on three sides and free on the fourth side. The theory gives rise to two sets of boundary conditions, each representing “simple support”. It is shown that these alternative choices lead to significantly different predictions of the buckling load in the case of sandwich plates simply supported on three sides and free on the fourth, unloaded side. The presented analysis can be specialized to elastic buckling of sandwich plates, and also to elastic or plastic buckling of homogeneous (one-material) plates with or without the transverse shear effects.