Buckling analysis of shear deformable plates by boundary element method

In this paper, the derivation and numerical implementation of boundary integral equations for the buckling analysis of shear deformable plates are presented. Plate buckling equations are derived as a standard eigenvalue problem. The formulation is formed by coupling boundary element formulations of shear deformable plate and two dimensional plane stress elasticity. The eigenvalue problem of plate buckling yields the critical load factor and buckling modes. The domain integrals which appear in this formulation are treated in two different ways: initially the integrals are evaluated using constant cells, and next, they are transformed into equivalent boundary integrals using the dual reciprocity method (DRM). Several examples with different geometry, loading and boundary conditions are presented to demonstrate the accuracy of the formulation. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.