THERMAL POST-BUCKLING AND THE CRITICAL BUCKLING MODE TRANSITION OF HEATED ELASTIC CIRCULAR PLATES ON ELSSTIC FOUNDATION

Based on the von Karman thin plate theory the governing equations in terms of the displacements of the middle plane are formulated for an elastic circular plate on Winkler elastic foundation, in which the two parameters of thermal loading and elastic foundation stiffness are included. By using the shooting method the corresponding two-point boundary value problem for nonlinear ordinary differential equations are solved numerically and the thermal buckling and post-buckling responses for the circular plate with immovably simply supported edges are obtained. Characteristic curves of the critical temperature loads for the anterior third-order buckling modes varying continuously with the foundation stiffness are plotted and the values of transition foundation stiffness between different modes are evaluated. Post-buckling equilibrium paths and configurations for the first-order buckling mode are presented and the effects of the foundation stiffness on the critical buckling temperature and the post-buckling configurations are analyzed.