An analytical model of a flexural-shear plate is proposed herein for the pu
rpose of buckling analysis. In this paper, tall buildings with shear-wall s
tructures and with narrow rectangular plane configuration are modeled as fl
exural-shear plates for buckling analysis. The governing differential equat
ion for buckling of a flexural-shear plate with varying cross-section is es
tablished. Using appropriate transformations, the equation is reduced to an
analytically solvable equation by selecting suitable expressions, such as
power functions and exponential functions, for the distribution of stiffnes
s along the height of the plate. The exact solutions for buckling of a flex
ural-shear plate with variable stiffness are derived. A numerical example s
hows that, the present methods are easy to implement and are efficient. (C)
2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.