Buckling of moderately thick annular plates subjected to torque

Abstract

An attempt is made in the current research to obtain the fundamental buckling torque and the associated buckled shape of an annular plate. The plate is subjected to a torque on its outer edge. An isotropic homogeneous plate is considered. The governing equations of the plate in polar coordinates are established with the aid of the Mindlin plate theory. Deformations and stresses of the plate prior to buckling are determined using the axisymmetric flatness conditions. Small perturbations are then applied to construct the linearised stability equations which govern the onset of buckling. To solve the highly coupled equations in terms of displacements and rotations, periodic auxiliary functions and the generalised differential quadrature method are applied. The coupled linear algebraic equations are a set of homogeneous equations dealing with the buckling state of the plate subjected to a unique torque. Benchmark results are given in tabular presentations for combinations of free, simply-supported, and clamped types of boundary conditions. It is shown that the critical buckling torque and its associated shape highly depend upon the combination of boundary conditions, radius ratio, and the thickness ratio.