Abstract
For stability analysis of stifened rectangular thin plates with various boundary conditions, Ritz method is presented. An energy method is especially useful in those cases where a rigorous solution of the diferential eqution is unknown or where we have a plate reinforced by stiffeners and it is required to find only an approximate value of the critical load. The strain energy due to the plate bending and the work done by the in-plane forces are taken into account in order to apply the principle of the minimum potential energy. The buckling mode shapes of flexural beams with various boundary conditions are derived, and shape functions consistent with the given boundary conditions in the two orthogonal directions are chosen from those displacement functions of beams. The matrix equations for stability of stiffened rectangular thin plates are determined from the stationary condition of the total potential energy. Numerical example for stability behaviors of horizontally and vertically stiffened plates subjected to uniform compression, bending and shear loadings are presented and the obtained results are compared with other researchers' results.
