Stability Analysis of Tapered Plates Using Energy Method

In this paper a new exact solution procedure, using energy method, is formulated for the buckling analysis of simply supported tapered rectangular plates subjected to uniform compressive load. At first, plates having uniform thickness are considered and their post-buckling paths and relative reductions in the membrane stiffness are calculated. Then, the buckling analyses of plates with linearly varying thicknesses are studied and the change in the buckling stress factors based on the reduction of the thickness is presented. Further, the buckling analyses of plates having thicknesses that vary non-linearly are studied. Finally, the post-buckling analysis of tapered plates is discussed.