Influence of thickness variation of annular plates on the buckling problem

The aim of this work is to establish the coefficient that defines the criti cal buckling load for isotropic annular plates of variable thickness whose outer boundary is simply supported and subjected to uniform pressure. It is assumed that the plate thickness varies in a continuous way, according to an exponential law. The eigenvalues are determined using an optimized Rayle igh-Ritz method with polynomial coordinate functions which identically sati sfy the boundary conditions at the outer edge. Good engineering agreement i s shown to exist between the obtained results and buckling parameters prese nted in the technical literature.