DEFORMATION OF SQUARE PLATES UNDER CONTRARY TRANSVERSE LOAD.

This paper deals with the measurement and the analysis of deformed configurations of square plates. The plates are supported at the four corners and each of the concentrated corner loads acts laterally in the opposite direction, alternately. The deformed configurations of the plates become anticlastic, and instability from anticlastic to synclastic occurs, with the behavior depending on the edge length to thickness ratio (2a/t) of the plate. The folding of the plates, by local yielding prior to the beginning of the instability, is discussed. This phenomenon takes place in the range of 2a/t less than 110. The experimental results revealed that there are four kinds of characteristic deformed configurations, depending on the ranges of the 2a/t values.