Semi-Analytical Solutions for the Uniformly Compressed Simply Supported Plate with Large Deflections

The thin plane plates are largely used in practice as single elements or as components of the thin-walled structures, and their behavior under compression is characterized by large post-buckling load-carrying capacity. Various semi-analytical solutions of the uniformly compressed simply supported plate with large deflections were formulated almost a century ago, mainly solving the fundamental equations governing the deformation of thin plates, or using classic energy methods. Due to several shortcomings, none of these solutions were introduced in the design codes of thin-walled members. This paper presents new semi-analytical solutions based on classic energy methods. The main innovation is brought by the considered displacement field which is far more accurate than the ones used by the previous formulations. The initial geometric imperfections are considered, and the proposed solutions are validated against numerical solutions and experimental data. The validation is also supported by a publicly available software application.