BUCKLING OF ELLIPTICAL PLATES UNDERUNIFORM PRESSURE

CONTENT
CONTENT................................................................................................................... 1
LIST OF FIGURES........................................................................................................ 2
NOTATIONS................................................................................................................ 3
1.0 Introduction......................................................................................................... 4
1.1. General............................................................................................................ 4
1.2. The objectives of the work are:.......................................................................4
2. Literature review.................................................................................................... 5

Liew, K. M., and Wang, C. M. (1992). "Elastic buckling of rectangular plates

with curved internal supports.".............................................................................. 5

Shibaoka, Y. (1956). On the Buckling of an Elliptic Plate with Clamped Edge I

5

Liew, K. M., and Wang, C. M. (1993). pb-2 Rayleigh - Ritz method for general
plate analysis........................................................................................................ 6

C. M. Wang, and K. M. Liew 2 BUCKLING OF ELLIPTICAL PLATES UNDER

UNIFORM PRESSURE............................................................................................. 6
3. METHODOLOGY...................................................................................................... 7
pb-2 RAYLEIGH-RITZ METHOD FOR ANALYSIS.........................................................7
4.0

RESULTS......................................................................................................... 14

REFERENCES............................................................................................................ 16

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LIST OF FIGURES
1.3.1. FIG. 1. Buckling of Internally Supported Elliptical Plate Subjected to Uniform
Normal Pressure.............................................................................................. 9
1.3.2. FIG. 2. Variation of Buckling Factors, , with Respect to Aspect Ratios, , for
Simply Supported and Clamped Elliptical Plates..............................................9
1.3.3.

FIG. 3(a). Buckling Factors for Simply Supported Elliptical Plate with Internal
Line Support Parallel to Major Axis................................................................10

1.3.4. FIG. 3(b). Buckling Factors for Clamped Elliptical Plate with Internal Line
Support Parallel to Major Axis........................................................................11
1.3.5. FIG. 4(a). Buckling Factors for Simply Supported Elliptical Plate with
Concentric Internal Elliptical Ring Support....................................................12
1.3.6. FIG. 4(b). Buckling Factors for Clamped Elliptical Plate with Concentric
Internal Elliptical Ring Support......................................................................13

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BUCKLING OF ELLIPTICAL PLATES UNDERUNIFORM PRESSURE

NOTATIONS

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BUCKLING OF ELLIPTICAL PLATES UNDERUNIFORM PRESSURE

1.0 Introduction
1.1. General
The elastic buckling of clamped elliptical plates under uniform compression was first
solved by Woinovsky-Krieger (1937). He used the Rayleigh-Ritz energy method and
approximated the deflection surface with hyperbolic-trigonometric series in elliptical
coordinates. Some upper-bound buckling solutions were given for different aspect ratios = a/b,
where a and b are the half-lengths of the major and minor axes, respectively. About two decades
later, Shibaoka (1956) discussed the solution procedure for determining the exact buckling loads
of clamped elliptical plates. However, only an approximate formula giving the relationship
between the buckling load and the ellipse eccentricity, e =

(1 ) , was presented. The

formula predicts accurate solutions when the values of eccentricity are small; that is, when the
plate is close to a circular shape. Laura and Shahady (1969) used the conformal mapping
technique to determine the buckling solution of a clamped elliptical plate with aspect ratio =
5
( )
3

. For elliptical plates with simply supported edges, Woinowsky-Krieger (1937)

remarked that approximate results could be obtained by dividing the solutions of the clamped
plates by factors ranging from 3.5 to 4.0 as the ellipse eccentricity e varies from 0 to 1.0. Apart
from these few references, the writers could not find any other paper on the buckling of elliptical
plates in the open literature.

1.2. The objectives of the work are:

1) To present buckling solutions for simply supported elliptical plates and to provide simple
formulas for both clamped and simply supported plates.
(2) To present new buckling solutions for elliptical plates with internal line/curved supports--the
plate periphery may be either simply supported or clamped.

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2. Literature review
Liew, K. M., and Wang, C. M. (1992). "Elastic buckling of
rectangular plates with curved internal supports."
This paper considers the elastic buckling of rectangular plates with curved internal supports.
In contrast to commonly used discretization methods, the buckling analysis is performed on a
continuum plate domain, including its supporting edges. This is made possible by using the
Rayleigh-Ritz method, which employs the newly proposed pb-2 Ritz functions. The pb-2 Ritz
functions consist of the product of a two-dimensional polynomial function (p-2) and a basic
function (b). The basic function is defined by the product of equations specifying the location
of the internal supports and equations of the prescribed continuous piecewise boundary
shape; in which each of the latter is raised to the power of either 0, 1, or 2, corresponding to
free, simply supported, or clamped edge, respectively. Such combination of functions ensures
the satisfaction of all kinematic boundary conditions at the outset. The pb-2 Rayleigh-Ritz
method offers simplicity and easy automation so that very complicated plate shapes and
curved internal supports may be solved efficiently and with high accuracy. To illustrate the
method, the buckling loads for rectangular plates with straight lines, circular, and cubic
curved internal supports are determined. With urbanization and increasing unbalance of
required area to availability, it is important to provide open ground storey in both type of
buildings that is commercial and residential.

A four storey building with RC moment

resisting frame has been chosen for this study.

Shibaoka, Y. (1956). On the Buckling of an Elliptic Plate with

Clamped Edge I
The buckling of a uniform thin elliptic plate with clamped edge whose periphery is subject to
a uniform normal pressure in the plane of the plate is solved formally in an exact manner by
the use of hyperbolic functions, circular functions, Mathieu functions and modified Mathieu
functions. An approximate formula for the relationship between the critical buckling load and

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BUCKLING OF ELLIPTICAL PLATES UNDERUNIFORM PRESSURE

the eccentricity of the elliptic plate is derived correct to the fourth power of the eccentricity,
which may be adequately used in case when the eccentricity is not so large.

Liew, K. M., and Wang, C. M. (1993). pb-2 Rayleigh - Ritz method

for general plate analysis
An alternative method to the widely used finite element method for elastic analysis of
thin plates, the pb-2 Rayleigh - Ritz method, is presented. The special feature of
thepb-2 Rayleigh - Ritz method lies in the definition of the Ritz functions which consist
of the product of a basic function and a two-dimensional polynomial function where
the number of terms may be increased until the desired accuracy is achieved. The
basic function is formed by the product of all the boundary equations; each of which is
raised to the power of either 0, 1 or 2, corresponding to either free, simply supported
or clamped edges, respectively. Thus the basic function ensures the satisfaction of the
kinematic boundary conditions at the outset. The bending, buckling and vibration
analyses are presented in a unified form and the pb-2 Rayleigh - Ritz method is
applied to solve some plate examples to illustrate its simplicity and accuracy.

C. M. Wang, and K. M. Liew 2 BUCKLING OF ELLIPTICAL

PLATES UNDER UNIFORM PRESSURE
The recently developedpb-2 Rayleigh-Ritz method (Liew and Wang 1992, 1993) will be used
for the buckling analysis. The method is designated as such because, for the Ritz function, it
employs a two-dimensional polynomial function (p-2) and a basic function (b) defined by the
product of the internal support equations and boundary equations in which the latter are raised to
powers of 0, 1, or 2 corresponding to a free, simply supported, or clamped edge, respectively. As
an approximate continuum method, it:
(1) Eliminates the need of discretization of support conditions (which means there are no
"boundary or support" losses);
(2) does not require any mesh generation;
(3) reduces the number of degrees of freedom required for accurate solution by a considerable
amount, making the method attractive for usage in a microcomputer.

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BUCKLING OF ELLIPTICAL PLATES UNDERUNIFORM PRESSURE

3. METHODOLOGY
pb-2 RAYLEIGH-RITZ METHOD FOR ANALYSIS
Consider a flat, thin, isotropic and elastic elliptical plate of constant thickness h and aspect ratio
a/b, as shown in Fig. I. The plate is subjected to in-plane uniform pressure N, and is internally
supported by some line/curved supports whose equations are specified. The problem is to
determine the buckling load of the elliptical plate. The total potential energy of the plate is given
by:

where x, y = Cartesian coordinates; D = Eh3[12(1 v2)] = flexural rigidity of the plate;

v = Poisson's ratio; w (x, y) = deflection of the middle plane of the plate perpendicular to the xy
plane; A = area of the plate = ab; and dA = dx dy.
The transverse displacement surface may be parameterized by

where p = degree set of the polynomial space; and Cr = unknown coefficients to be varied, with
the subscript r given by

To
ensure direct satisfaction of the geometric boundary conditions, the preceding basic function 1

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(x, y) is taken as the product of the elliptical boundary equation and the internal line/curved
support equations, i.e.

where n = number of internal line/curved supports; Aj = equation of the jth internal support; = 1
for a simply supported edge; and = 2 for a clamped edge. For generality and convenience, the
coordinates will be normalized by
Applying the Rayleigh-Ritz method

and substituting (1) -(6) into (7) yields

where = Na2/D and the elements of the matrices are given by

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I.3.1. FIG. 1. Buckling of Internally Supported Elliptical Plate Subjected to Uniform

Normal Pressure.

I.3.2. FIG. 2. Variation of Buckling Factors, , with Respect to Aspect Ratios, , for
Simply Supported and Clamped Elliptical Plates.

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I.3.3. FIG. 3(a). Buckling Factors for Simply Supported Elliptical Plate with Internal
Line Support Parallel to Major Axis

I.3.4. FIG. 3(b). Buckling Factors for Clamped Elliptical Plate with Internal Line
Support Parallel to Major Axis
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BUCKLING OF ELLIPTICAL PLATES UNDERUNIFORM PRESSURE

I.3.5. FIG. 4(a). Buckling Factors for Simply Supported Elliptical Plate with
Concentric Internal Elliptical Ring Support.

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BUCKLING OF ELLIPTICAL PLATES UNDERUNIFORM PRESSURE

I.3.6. FIG. 4(b). Buckling Factors for Clamped Elliptical Plate with Concentric
Internal Elliptical Ring Support.

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BUCKLING OF ELLIPTICAL PLATES UNDERUNIFORM PRESSURE

4.0 RESULTS
Buckling factors = Na2/D for simply supported and clamped elliptical plates with aspect ratios
ranging from 1 a = a/b 4 were obtained using the pb-2 Rayleigh-Ritz method (taking p =
13). Fig. 2 shows the variations of the factors with respect to the aspect ratios. Using the leastsquares method for curve fitting, the following formulas may be used to predict accurately
(within a maximum error of 0.07% for simply supported and 0.2% for clamped plates) the

buckling load:
The preceding formula for damped elliptical plate is more general than the one given by
Shibaoka (1956), which is only restricted to plates with 1 1.25. The results furnished by
Shibaoka's formula differs by at most 3% (at = 1.25) from the results given by (16) for its
limited range of validity (see Fig. 2 for solutions given by Shibaoka's formula).
Figs. 3(a) and 3(b) show the variations of the buckling factors with respect to different aspect
ratios for simply supported and clamped elliptical plates, respectively, with an internal line
support at a parallel distance of 13b away from the major axis. Interestingly, the buckling
factors of the clamped plates are approximately double that of their simply supported
counterparts. When the internal support lies on the major axis (i.e., = 0), the ratio of the
buckling factors is indeed very close to two. It can also be seen that the buckling factor
increases with respect to the aspect ratio and decreases as the internal line support moves away
from the major axis. Figs. 4(a) and 4(b) give the solutions for elliptical plates with a concentric
elliptical ring support whose aspect ratio is . The buckling factors show sensitivity to the size
of the elliptical ring support. Future study may consider the optimization of the ring-support
aspect ratio so as to maximize the buckling capacity.
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BUCKLING OF ELLIPTICAL PLATES UNDERUNIFORM PRESSURE

CONCLUDING REMARKS
The pb-2 Ritz functions for approximating the deflection shape make the application of
Rayleigh-Ritz method relatively easy for buckling analysis of elliptical plates with various edge
conditions and any number and form of internal line/curved supports. The method is very useful
when performing an optimization study on the best shape and location of internal supports for
maximum buckling capacity. This is due to the simplicity of the method in catering for the
internal curved support, since there is no need to bother with the coincident of nodes along the
supporting curves as required in discretization methods. The simple buckling formulas
developed for simply supported and clamped elliptical plates and the buckling design curves for
internally supported plates should be useful to designers.

REFERENCES

Laura, P. A., and Shahady, P. (1969). "Complex variable theory and elastic stability
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BUCKLING OF ELLIPTICAL PLATES UNDERUNIFORM PRESSURE

problems." J. Engrg. Mech. Div., ASCE, 95(1), 59-67.

Liew, K. M., and Wang, C. M. (1992). "Elastic buckling of rectangular plates with
curved internal supports." J. Struct. Engrg., ASCE, 118(6), 1480-1493.

Liew, K. M., and Wang, C. M. (1993). "pb-2 Rayleigh-Ritz method for general
plate analyses." Engrg. Struct., 15(I), 55-60.

Shibaoka, Y. (1956). "On the buckling of an elliptic plate with clamped edge I." J.
Phys. Soc. Japan, 11(10), 1088-1091.

Woinowsky-Krieger, S. (1937). "The stability of a clamped elliptic plate under uniform

compression."J.Appl.Mech.,4(4),177-178.

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