Buckling and post-buckling of annular plates under non-axisymmetric plane edge forces (Q1192890)

Annular Kirchhoff plates of linear elastic, isotropic material are loaded under radial compression. Displacements and stress functions are the variables in an energy functional which forms the basis for a special triangular finite element with cubic approximation functions. The linearised eigenvalue problem yields bifurcation loads which are computed by means of a modified subspace iteration method. Initial postbuckling behavior is determined by applying the perturbation technique. A reason for using element-wise approximation instead of harmonic functions is not given.