Buckling analysis of axially compressed SSSS thin rectangular plate using Taylor-Mclaurin shape function

A comprehensive buckling analysis of axially compressed rectangular flat thin plate with simply supported edges was carried out. The study was accomplished through a theoretical formulation based on Taylor-Mclaurin's series and application of Ritz method. The Taylor Mclaurin's series was truncated at the fifth term, which satisfied all the boundary conditions of the plate and resulted to a particular shape function for SSSS plate. The resulting shape function was substituted into the total potential energy functional, which was subsequently minimized. After minimization, the critical buckling load for the plate was obtained by making Nx the subject of the formular. The resulting critical load was found to be a function of a coefficient, “H”, and the values of H from the present study were compared with the exact values within the range of aspect ratios from o.1 to 1.0 as shown on table 1. The maximum percentage difference was found to be 0.098% for aspect ratio of 0.1, while the least percentage difference was found to be 0.05% for an aspect ratio of 1.0. Hence, the Taylor-Mclaurin series shape function obtained for the SSSS plate is a very good approximation of the exact shape function for the plate.