Buckling analysis of circular FGM plate having variable thickness under uniform compression by finite element method

This study presents the buckling analysis of radially-loaded circular plate with variable thickness made of functionally-graded material. The boundary conditions of the plate is either simply supported or clamped. The stability equations were obtained using energy method based on Love-Kichhoff hypothesis and Sander's non-linear strain-displacement relation for thin plates. The finite element method is used to determine the critical buckling load. The results obtained show good agreement with known analytical and numerical data. The effects of thickness variation and Poisson's ratio are investigated by calculating the buckling load. These effects are found not to be the same for simply supported and clamped plates.