Open Access

ARTICLE

Buckling Analysis of Plates Stiffened by Parallel Beams

E.J. Sapountzakis¹, V.G. Mokos¹

1 School of Civil Engineering, National Technical University, Zografou Campus, GR–157 80, Athens, Greece. Email: cvsapoun@central.ntua.gr, vgmokos@central.ntua.gr

Computers, Materials & Continua 2009, 12(2), 157-196. https://doi.org/10.3970/cmc.2009.012.157

Abstract

In this paper a general solution for the elastic buckling analysis of plates stiffened by arbitrarily placed parallel beams of arbitrary doubly symmetric cross section subjected to an arbitrary inplane loading is presented. According to the proposed model, the stiffening beams are isolated from the plate by sections in the lower outer surface of the plate, taking into account the arising tractions in all directions at the fictitious interfaces. These tractions are integrated with respect to each half of the interface width resulting two interface lines, along which the loading of the beams as well as the additional loading of the plate is defined. The unknown distribution of the aforementioned integrated tractions is established by applying continuity conditions in all directions at the two interface lines, while the analysis of both the plate and the beams is accomplished on their deformed shape. The method of analysis is based on the capability to establish the elastic and the corresponding geometric stiffness matrices of the stiffened plate with respect to a set of nodal points. Thus, the original eigenvalue problem for the differential equation of buckling is converted into a typical linear eigenvalue problem, from which the buckling loads are established numerically. For the calculation of the elastic and geometric stiffness matrices six boundary value problems are formulated and solved using the Analog Equation Method (AEM), a BEM-based method. Numerical examples with practical interest are presented. The accuracy of the results of the proposed model compared with those obtained from a 3-D FEM solution is remarkable.

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Keywords

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