Wrinkling of pressurized circular functionally graded plates under thermal loading

The paper investigates the possibility of bifurcation buckling from axisymmetrical equilibrium states of a heated circular plate with immovable edge. The plate is composed of a functionally graded material whose mechanical and physical properties are varied in the thickness direction according to the power law. Because of high compressive circumferential stresses that develop near the edge, the symmetrically deformed plate can buckle into asymmetric equilibrium configurations characterized by local circumferential waves (wrinkles). The problem of determining wrinkling thermal loads is formulated using the von Karman nonlinear plate theory based on the concept of physically neutral surface and solved by the power series method. The existence of wrinkling loads is examined for various pressure levels and boundary conditions. The calculation results are compared to the finite-element solution obtained by a general-purpose shell element.