Classical and Refined Buckling Analysis of Plates Under Shear and Uniaxial Stresses

The buckling strength check of rectangular plates under combined shear and uniaxial compressive forces is generally carried out applying the classical thin-plate theory, so neglecting the shear deformation, even if the plating thickness may not be considered totally negligible, as regards the panel’s mean dimensions. Besides, Euler shear stresses are evaluated separately, so that no influence, due to the in-plane compressive forces, is accounted for in the strength check procedure. In the present paper this matter is fully discussed and new formulas are derived by curve fitting, to account for both the shear deformation and the interaction between shear and compressive forces. Two different theories are applied: the classical thin plate one and the two variable refined theories proposed by Shimpi, based on two coupled bending-shear governing equations, derived by the Hamilton’s principle. Finally, to show the feasibility of the proposed formulas, different verification examples of plates loaded by combined shear and compressive forces are presented, varying the plating thickness, as well as the panel aspect ratio. Besides, the theoretical results are compared with those ones obtained by ANSYS, where different FE eigenvalue buckling analyses have been carried out.