Thermal buckling of circular plates

Abstract

The post-buckling behaviour of a circular plate is investigated for two conditions--heating over the centre and heating at the edge. In the former case the plate buckles into the form of a saucer; in the latter into a saddle shape. The plate may be free or it may be subjected to a variety of edge restraints. For centre heating, edge restraint has little effect on the behaviour; for edge heating it is extremely iinportant. General non-dimensional curves are presented for the deflected form and bending stresses. Experiments carried out on plates under centre heating generally support the analyses, but precise confirmation was impossible owing to inherent experimental difficulties.