(bnrpulm & .Wucr,,r<~.,Vol. 56. No. I, pp. 75-83.

1995
Copyright c 1995 Elrev~cr Scmcc Ltd
Pergamon 0045-7949(94)00528-l Prinkd m Great Brilm. All rights rewvcd
0045.7949195 $9.50 + 0.00

BUCKLING OF PLATES WITH DIFFERENT END

CONDITIONS USING THE FINITE STRIP METHOD

M. A. Bradford and M. Azhari

Department of Structural Engineering, School of Civil Engineering, The University of New South Wales,
Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia

(Received 21 February 1994)

Abstract-Using two types of series function, a finite strip method of analysis is developed which enables
the elastic local buckling of plates and plate structures with different boundary conditions along the loaded
ends to be studied. The stability or geometric matrix is derived and presented in the paper. The accuracy
and efficacy of the method is demonstrated with a few illustrative examples.

NOTATION particularly in light commercial and domestic con-

struction, has also instigated a renewed vigour in
flexural and membrane strain matrices, respect-
research into local buckling.
ively
width of strip Although many theoretical solutions, both ap-
isotropic property matrix proximate and exact, have been obtained since the
flexural and membrane strip degrees of freedom turn of the century, most research over the last 25
Young’s modulus of elasticity
years or so has been computer based. The finite
polynomial interpolating functions
structure stability matrix element method provides the most general frame-
flexural and membrane stability matrices, re- work, with a detailed review of many of the contri-
spectively butions being given in Ref. [I]. For particular types
structure stiffness matrix of structures, namely those composed of prismatic
elastic local buckling coefficient
plates, the finite strip method can be extremely com-
flexural and membrane stiffness matrices, re-
spectively petitive in terms of computation time, rendering
length of strip solutions tractable for microcomputer application.
number of harmonic terms An “exact” formulation of the finite strip method was
series function
first presented by Wittrick and his colleagues in the
strip thickness
strain energy late 1960s [2-51, but more recent researchers have
buckling displacements in X, y and z directions, deployed the semi-analytical treatment as summar-
respectively ized in the well-known text by Cheung [6]. The study
volume of strip in this paper is based on the latter formulation.
work done
The first use of the semi-analytical finite strip
Cartesian axes in Fig. I
vector of global buckling displacements method for local buckling appears to be the work of
vector of buckling strains Przemieniecki [7], who studied the initial local buck-
nonlinear strains ling stresses of plates and plate assemblies under
buckling load factor
biaxial compression. His approach utilized the ap-
2ylb
term in series function proximation finite strip formulation of Cheung and
Poisson’s ratio Cheung [8], in which the lateral displacement of the
rotation of nodal line strip during buckling was assumed to vary sinu-
applied stresses in Fig. I soidally in the longitudinal direction, and according
to a cubic polynomial in the direction of width.
INTRODUCTION
Several simplified studies [9, IO] have used a sine
curve for the longitudinal variation of buckling dis-
modern trend of employing thin plates in placements, which is applicable for structures whose
steel structural members, the prediction of local ends are simply supported.
buckling has become increasingly important. The present paper uses the displacement functions
Examples of such thin-walled members include sus- of Cheung and Cheung [8], and additional functions,
pension bridge pylons, dock gates as well as I and box to develop a finite strip local buckling approach for
sections used in plate girder bridges and power plates whose loaded edges are either simply sup-
stations. The increased use of cold formed members, ported (S-S) or clamped (C-C), one end clamped and

75
16 M. A. Bradford and M. Azhari

the other end simply supported (C-S), one end nal strips subjected to membrane stresses eL, aR and
clamped and the other end guided (C-G) and one end O, (Fig. I). The displacement functions are assumed
clamped and the other end free (C-F). Although the to be polynomials in the transverse direction while, in
theory is set out fully, only the stability matrix is the longitudinal direction, characteristic basic func-
presented, as the stiffness matrix has been given in tions corresponding to the pre-set boundary con-
Ref. [8]. Following development of the method, sev- ditions have been used. These are basic functions
eral examples are presented to illustrate its efficacy. denoted I and II. The basic functions I are derived
from the solution of the beam vibration differential
equations which were employed by Cheung and
FINITE STRIP THEORY
Cheung [8] to study plate vibration. The basic func-
In the finite strip analysis, each component plate of tions II are trigonometric functions. and only satisfy
the structure is treated as an assemblage of longitudi- the boundary conditions a priori.

uL + aB x, u
(4 (b)
f

S.S, C, G, or F
aL - OB
OL +uB

(cl

Y, v

Fig. 1. Stresses and displacements for plate with different boundary conditions. (a) Basic state of stresses
in a strip. (b) Membrane displacement of a strip. (c) Flexural displacement of a strip.
 Buckling of plates with different end conditions 77

For the strip of Fig. I, the general displacement On differentiating eqns (l)-(3), {t } may be written
functions can be taken in the form as

(13)

and
(2)

(14)
(3)
where the strain matrices [B,” ] and [Br, ] are given in
Ref. [I]. The elastic isotropic plate property matrix
where the vectors of degrees of freedom correspond-
[D] defines the membrane and flexural buckling con-
ing to the n th harmonic are given by
stitutive relationship by

id,,,,, 1 = G+,,r UI,,, v2,,r u2n jT (4)

(15)
for the membrane displacements, and
where

for the flexural displacements, while the polynomial and

interpolation vectors are

<fr(rl))=(O,f(l -rl)>O>f(l +4)) (6)

G(V)) = (f(l - V), 0, f(l + rl)> 0) (7) in which

lv 0

-1
(h(v))=
VU=& ’ ’ ’ (18)

-%(I -_q)(l +v)*,S +rl12C-t?) (8)

[ 0 0 I-v
2

and
in which

VA1= ; Pm1 (19)

(9)

where E is Young’s modulus, v is Poisson’s ratio and

In eqns (l)-(3), S,, is the n th term of the basic t is the strip thickness.
function series corresponding to particular pre-set The total strain energy U stored during buckling
end conditions, and a prime denotes differentiation may be written as (1 I)
with respect to X. S,, and p,, are given for the basic
functions I in Appendix 1 and for the basic functions
II in Appendix 2. U=; (~}‘{~}dk’ (20)
sY
The infinitesimal linear buckling strain vector {e}
consisting of membrane and flexural parts is given where V’is the volume of the strip. Hence substituting
by eqns (IO) and (15)-(17) into eqn (20) yields the
stiffness matrix from
(6) = C(G). (%>>T (10)

where

:Gnj= (u,,; v, r; u,.,+ L’, \ >T (11) in which

and
hI=[;;;; 1:: ;;;] (22)
{tr}‘= (w,,,; M’,,.,; -2W’,,,.)? (12)
78 M. A. Bradford and M. Azhari

is the membrane stiffness matrix, while and

[k,] = [ ;;;;:: 11: ;;;;] (23)

is the flexural stiffness matrix.

[k,] may be obtained from
The matrices [k,] and
+$, UXV)YU;(V)X,S,
1 dF. (32)

Explicit forms for the membrane and flexural

stability matrices [g,&, and [gr],,p have been deter-
mined, and these are given in Appendix 3. For the
case of a strip with simply supported ends for which
S,, = sin nnx/L, if only one term of the Fourier series
and
is used then it can be shown that the membrane and
flexural stability matrices are the same as those
presented by Plank and Wittrick [12].
By assembling the strip stiffness and stability
matrices into their global counterparts [K] and [G],
These matrices have been given explicitly by then the principle of stationary total potential allows
Cheung and Cheung [8], and are not reproduced the buckling equation to take the usual form [I, I I]
here.
The strip is subjected to the in-plane stresses
([Kl- ~[GINA] = 101. (33)
shown in Fig. I. The decrease in potential energy
of these stresses V, during buckling is given
For buckling, the determinant of [K] - i[G] must
by[l, 111
vanish, which can be solved for the buckling load
factor ,? using standard eigenvalue extraction tech-
niques [I]. The corresponding eigenvector {A} rep-
resents the global buckling degrees of freedom which
yields the buckling mode shape.
where the nonlinear membrane strain matrix {L,.,) is
given by
ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES

{t,,,} = (f~,~, + ftl,z\ +f~f,;$v,~~; w,w,,)~. (27)

General

Hence by appropriate substitution, the stability The finite strip initial buckling analysis for plates
matrix may be obtained from with different boundary conditions has been pro-
grammed on a desktop workstation, and critical
stresses have been determined. The program can
analyse plates which are S-S, C-C, C-S, C-G and
C-F. It should be noted that the value of r is equal
where to the number of longitudinal half-wavelengths
throughout the plate, and four equal strips were used
in all studies. Although the local buckling of plates is
]Ll=[;;:: 1:: ;+] (29) considered herein, the program can also handle the
distortional and lateral buckling of plate structures.

Comparison of the basic functions

is the membrane stability matrix, and
In order to evaluate the accuracy of the basic
functions I and II, simply supported and clamped
plates with the loaded edges clamped have been
]&I = [;;;I 1:: y (30)
analysed. The results obtained from basic functions I
and II are compared with the exact results in Tables
I and 2, where the local buckling coefficient in eqn
is the flexural stability matrix; in which (34) is given. It is evident that both basic functions
produce results which are in good agreement with the
exact results. However, the results of basic functions
II are in better agreement with the exact results for
aspect ratios greater than 1.5. Moreover, in most
cases the basic functions II and their derivatives,
posses the valuable properties of orthogonality, so
 Buckling of plates with different end conditions 79

Table I. Local buckling coefficient of plate with longitudi-

nal edges S-S and loaded edges CC
k k k
Lib (functions I) (functions II) (exact)
0.4 27.3 27.12 27.12
0.6 13.48 13.38 13.38
0.8 8.81 8.73 8.73
1 6.81 6.75 6.74
1.2 5.94 5.85 5.84
1.4 5.61 5.50 5.45
1.6 5.57 5.38 5.34
1.8 5.25 5.17 5.18
2 4.93 4.85 4.85
3 4.45 4.41 4.42

the modes are uncoupled and only a small matrix

needs to be solved. Because of this, in the remainder
of the studies the basic functions II are used.

Simply supported plates in compression

Figure 2 shows the local buckling coefficient k, 21 I I 1 I _
obtained from the equation 05 1.0 1.5 2.0 L 25
b

Fig. 2. Buckling coefficient for plates in compression with

a,, = k longitudinal edges S-S.

for longitudinally simply supported plates under uni- substantially the value of k when L/b is less than 1S,
form compression. Four boundary conditions along while the restraint of the loaded edges has little effect
the loaded edges have been considered, namely S-S, on the buckling stress of long plates.
CC?, C-S and CC.
Clamped-simply supported plates in compression
Allen and Bulson [13] showed that for the case of
the loaded edges S-S, the transition from n to (n + 1) Figure 4 shows the variation of the local buckling
half-waves takes place when 4’ = n(n + l), while for coefficient with aspect ratio for plates whose longi-
the loaded edges C-C it is 4’ = n(n + 2), where tudinal edges are clamped-simply supported under
4 = L/b. The transition points in Fig. 2 agree well pure compression, with S-S, C-C, C-S and C-C
with the values obtained from Ref. [13]. As the figure
shows, for plates with L/b less than 2 the boundary
conditions for the loaded edges have a significant
effect on the critical stresses. However, for long plates
the boundary conditions for the loaded edges only
have a marginal effect on the critical stresses.

Clamped plates in compression

The variation of the local buckling coefficient k
against aspect ratio for clamped plates with S-S,
C-G, C-S and C-C boundary conditions along the
loaded edges is given in Fig. 3. It can be seen that the
boundary conditions along the loaded edges affect

Table 2. Local buckling coefficient of plate with longitudi-

nal edges clamped and loaded edges C-C
k k k
Lib (functions I) (functions II) (exact)
0.5 19.5 19.2 19.2
0.75 II.88 Il.7 11.4
I 10.56 10.31 10.08
1.25 9.44 9.28 9.94
I.5 8.6 8.40 6.06
8.32 05 10 l-5 2-o L 2 5
1.75 8.54 8.28 8.08 b
2 8.02 7.89 7.88
Fig. 3. Buckling coefficient for plates in compression with
co 6.99 6.99 6.99
longitudinal edges C-C.
 M. A. Bradford and M. Azhari

30 -

25-

2.0 -

15-

lo-

05-

4 , I I I ) 0 I I I I I / )
05 10 1.5 20 i 25 0 10 20 30 4.0 5.0 k 60
b b

Fig. 4. Buckling coefficient for plates in compression with Fig. 5. Buckling coefficient for plates in compression with
longitudinal edges C-S. longitudinal edges S-F.

boundary conditions along the loaded edges. Again, in the absence of shear when the usual simplifying
the local buckling coefficient is insensitive to large assumption of two opposite, simply supported
values of the aspect ratio. ends is removed by assuming the superposition of
appropriate longitudinal functions. The stiffness and
Flange plates in compression

The variation of the local buckling coefficient with

aspect ratio for simply supported and clamped flange
plates with S-S, CG, C-S and C-C boundary con-
ditions on the loaded edge is given in Figs 5 and 6.
It can be seen that for flange plates with L/b less than
3, the loaded edges’ boundary conditions have a
significant effect on k. However, this effect is only
marginal when L/b exceeds 6. It can also be seen that
the C-G and S-S cases for simply supported flange
plates are about the same.

Simply supported plutes in bending

Figure 7 shows the variation of the local buckling

coefficient with aspect ratio for simply supported
plates under pure bending whose loaded edges are
S-S, C-S and CC. As L/h increases. the value of k
approaches the theoretical value of 23.9 [I21 for a
long, simply supported plate in bending. This
confirms that for long plates, the state of restraint of
the loaded edges for a plate in pure bending has little
effect on the critical stresses.
101
4
CONCLUDING HEMARKS 0 1 2 3 5 I6
b

A finite strip method has been presented for Fig. 6. Buckling coefficient for plates in compression with
analysing the elastic local buckling of plate structures longitudinal edges C-F.
 Buckling of plates with different end conditions 81

K
7. J. S. Przemieniecki, Finite element analysis of local
instability. Am. Inst. Aeronaur. Astronaul. J. 11, 33-39
40
(1973).
8. M. S. Cheung and Y. K. Cheung, Natural vibration of
thin flat walled structures with different boundary con-
ditions. J. Sound Vibr. 18(3), 325-337 (1971).
9. G. J. Hancock, Local, distortional and lateral buckling
of I-beams. J. Sfrucl. Dir:. ASCE 104(STI I), 1787-1798
(1978).
35
IO. M. A. Bradford, Local buckling of trough girders.
J. Struct. Engng ASCE 116(6), 1594-1610 (1990).
I I. M. A. Bradford, Buckling of beams with flexible cross-
sections. Ph.D. thesis, The University of Sydney (1983).
12. R. J. Plank and W. H. Wittrick, Buckling under com-
bined loading of thin Bat walled structures by a complex
30 finite strip method. Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng S(2),
323-339 (1974).
13. H. B. Allen and P. S. Bulson, Background to Buckling.
McGraw-Hill, London (1980).

APPENDIX I: BASIC FUNCTIONS I

25

I. s-s

S,=siny

2c 1 / , I I I _
,3 5 05 075 10 l-25 & 15 pc, = nz
b

Fig. 7. Buckling coefficient for plates in bending with 2. c-c

longitudinal edges S-S.

stability matrices for the finite strip model were sin n(. - sinh p,
developed. a”
cos p, - cash /I,
Simply supported, clamped, simply supported-
clamped and flange flat plates under compression & =
with different boundary conditions along the loaded
ends have been studied, as was a plate in pure 3. SC
bending. It was shown that although the restraint of
the loaded edges in short plates has a considerable s
”
= sin !!!!?_ PJ
II
sinh !!!f
effect on the critical stresses, it has little effect on the L L.

buckling stress of long plates. sin p0

E”
sinh p”
Acknowledgemenr-The work reported in this paper was
supported in part by a large research grant made available
by the Australian Research Council.

4. C-F
REFERENCES

I. M. Azhari, Local and post-local buckling of plates and s, = sin !!$ _ sinh !$ _ a, ~0s !!!f _ ,-osh y

plate assemblies using the finite strip method. Ph.D.

Thesis, The University of New South Wales, Kensing- sin p,, + sinh pn
ton (1993). c(, =
cos p’. + cash n(,
2. W. H. Wittrick, General sinusoidal stiffness matrices for
buckling and vibration analyses of thin-walled struc- 2n - 1
tures. Int. J. Me&. Sci. 10, 949-966 (1968).
3. F. W. Williams and W. H. Wittrick, Computational
procedures for a matrix analysis of the stability and
p,=
[
-n
2 I
inallcases,n=l.2,...,r.
vibration of thin-walled structures in compression. Int.
J. Mech. Sci. II, 979-998 (1968).
4. W. H. Wittrick and P. L. V. Curzon, Stability functions APPENDIX 2: BASIC FUNCTIONS II
for the local buckling of thin-walled structures in bend-
ing and compression. Aero. Q. 19, 327-351 (1968). I. SSS
5. W. H. Wittrick and P. L. V. Curzon. Local buckling of
long polygonal tubes in combined bending and torsion. s = sin
,I
!!!I!
Int. J. Mech. Sci. 10, 849-857 (1968). L
6. Y. K. Cheung, Finite Strip Method in Srrucnuol Anuly-
sis. Pergamon Press. Oxford (1976). P,~ = nn.
82 M. A. Bradford and M. Azhari

2. c-c (llcr,+4cr,)b’rL +yL

(3.4) =
420 2 IO”

(130,+7dhr[ _6”“/
(4*4)= - 35 2 5b I.

where
S
0

4. C-F

If the basic functions 1 are used, the f, terms above are

S,,=, -,,,q& integrated numerically. For basic functions II, the terms can
be obtained by direct integration, and are listed below.
1. s-s

I, = L/2(n =p)

In all cases, n = I, 2,. , r.

APPENDIX 3: STABILITY MATRIX

The nonzero terms in the symmetric membrane stability

matrix are:
n4s4
h=2L’(n ‘P)

rJ=o(n #PI.

2. CC

(2,2)=-@&Lx; I,=L/4(n=p) except 1,=3L/8(n=p=l)

n P
btcr,L? I,=O(nfp) except I,=-L/8(+n+P=2)
(2,4)= -=I,;
n P

(3,3)= -$TJ~;

&=O(n#p) except 12=gL(n+l)(*n+p=2)

(4,4)= -5”
n P

The nonzero terms in the symmetric flexural stability L+$](?i - 1)4f(!l + l)“](n =p)
matrix are:

li=O(n#p) except L,=$(+n+p=2)

(,,J)= _(“~,;l@eL!(,; 3. s-c

I,=$ +ejqn ‘P)

(130,+e,)b’lL +yL: I,=O(n#p) except I,=: n+l (+nfp=I)

(l,4)= - ( n >
420 Z 10’
I = (n + I)‘79
W,-Wbr, _6rr,], 2 -----(n=p)
(2,2)= - 35 2 5b ,) L

oL - u,)b’f n(n + I)”

I,=O(n #p) except I?=----- (+n k/J = 1)
(2.3)=(13 420 f+$f,: 2L

,, = [(n + l)4 + n’(n + l)‘]n4

(n =P)
2L’

(40, + o,)b’t I _ 20, bt I n’(n + l)n4

(3, 3) = - I,=O(n #p) except I,= (+n&p=l).
420 ‘15” 2L’
 Buckling of plates with different end conditions 83

4. C-F

I, =O(n itp)
I, =O(n #p) except I, = +n TP = 1)

I23 -f)2n2(,‘p) ‘P)

2L

I2 = 0 (n f p) except 12=
I2=O(n #p)

p - u4+n41n4@
=p)
8L’

-n47r4
I3 =O(n #p) except 13= 8L’Gn &P = 1)
I,=O(n ZP)