Accurate model for simply supported plates

Abstract

The reliability of a model in ABAQUS depends mainly on the experience of the modeler. For the problem of elastic buckling of a simply supported thin plate in compression, except for the example in ABAQUS’s user manual, which only applies to rectangular plates that are symmetrical in both directions, the current proposed models are personalized and untested. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to verify the currently used models and thereby propose a general model for the problem. For this purpose, different models are created in ABAQUS, and their reliability will be asserted by comparing the results with the theoretical solution of Timoshenko. The critical stresses and buckling coefficients of models are the values to be obtained and used for comparison. The results show that the model outlined in ABAQUS’s user manual and the model proposed in the paper match the theoretical solution, while other models have significant differences. The proposed model is more general than that of ABAQUS’s manual, and it is applied to an example of a trapezoidal plate. The knowledge obtained from the proposed model can be applied to the modeling of other forms of structure.