BUCKLING SOLUTIONS FOR MINDLIN PLATES OF VARIOUS SHAPES

In the open literature, there are many formulae, tables and design cha rts for use in estimating the buckling loads of thin plates. However, buckling solutions for thick plates, apart from those belonging to rec tangular and axisymmetric plate shapes, are rather scarce. Prompted by the lack of results, this paper presents generic buckling solutions f or isotropic inplane loaded Mindlin prates of regular polygonal, ellip tical, semicircular and annular plates. These numerical solutions shou ld help designers to save time rather than having to analyse the stabi lity of moderately thick plates.