BUCKLING AND VIBRATION OF ANNULAR MINDLIN PLATES WITH INTERNAL CONCENTRIC RING SUPPORTS SUBJECT TO INPLANE RADIAL PRESSURE

This paper is concerned with the buckling and vibration of annular Min dlin plates with internal concentric ring supports subjected to extern al and internal isotropic in-plane radial pressure. The governing eige nvalue equation is obtained, by using the Rayleigh-Ritz approach with the transverse displacement and rotations being approximated by the pr oduct of a complete one-dimensional polynomial function and a basic fu nction. The basic function is the product of the boundary equations an d ensures the automatic satisfaction of the kinematic boundary conditi ons. Comprehensive sets of buckling factors and vibration frequencies for the aforementioned Mindlin plate problems are tabulated, for the f irst time, to the author's knowledge. Additionally, useful design char ts are presented for a large number of annular Mindlin plates on multi ple concentric ring supports with the outer and inner edges subjected to isotropic in-plane radial pressure. Computations based on the model reveal the significant effect of internal rings on the buckling facto rs and vibration frequencies of the plates.