A semi-analytical model on the critical buckling load of perforated plates with opposite free edges

Abstract

Perforated plates are widely used in thin-walled engineering structures, for example, for lightweight designs of structures and access for installation. For the purpose of analysis, such perforated plates with two opposite free edges might be considered as a series of successive Timoshenko beams. A new semi-analytical model was developed in this study using the Timoshenko shear beam theory for the critical buckling load of perforated plates, with the characteristic equations derived. Results of the proposed modelling were compared with those obtained by FEM and show good agreement. The influence of the dividing number of the successive beams on the accuracy of the critical buckling load was studied with respect to various boundary conditions. And the effect of geometrical parameters, such as the aspect ratio, the thickness-to-width ratio and the cutout-to-width ratio were also investigated. The study shows that the proposed semi-analytical model can be used for buckling analysis of a perforated plate with opposite free edges with the capacity to consider the shear effect in thick plates.