Nonlinear buckling and postbuckling analysis of an eccentrically stiffened E-FGM plate on elastic foundation in the thermal environment

Abstract

This paper presents the nonlinear buckling and postbuckling analysis of imperfect eccentrically stiffened FGM plates under the effect of temperature and resting on elastic foundation using a exponential distribution law (E-FGM). Both the E-FGM plate and stiffeners are deformed under thermal loads. The formulations are based on the classical plate theory taking into account geometrical nonlinearity, initial geometrical imperfection, temperature-dependent properties and the Lekhnitsky’s smeared stiffeners technique with the Pasternak type elastic foundation. By applying Galerkin method and using stress function, the effects of geometrical properties, temperature, elastic foundation and eccentrically stiffeners on the buckling and postbuckling loading capacity of the eccentrically stiffened E-FGM plate in the thermal environment are analysed and discussed.