Symplectic superposition method for new analytic buckling solutions of rectangular thin plates

Buckling of the rectangular thin plates is a class of problems of fundamental importance in mechanical engineering. Although various theoretical and numerical approaches have been developed, benchmark analytic solutions are still rare due to the mathematical difficulty in solving the complex boundary value problems of the governing high-order partial differential equation. Actually, most available solutions can be categorized as either “accurate” for the plates with two opposite edges simply supported or “approximate” for those without two opposite edges simply supported. In this paper, we present the first work on the symplectic superposition method-based analytic buckling solutions of the rectangular thin plates. A Hamiltonian system-based variational principle via the Lagrangian multiplier method is proposed to formulate the thin plate buckling in the symplectic space. Then the governing equation is analytically solved for some fundamental subproblems which are superposed to yield the final solutions of the original problems. For each problem, a set of equations are produced with respect to the expansion coefficients of the quantities imposed on the plate edges. The existence of the nontrivial solutions of the equations sets the requirement that the determinant of the coefficient matrix be zero, which leads to a transcendental equation with respect to the buckling loads. The buckling mode shapes are obtained by substituting the nontrivial coefficient solutions into the mode shape solutions of the subproblems, followed by superposition. Four types of buckling problems are studied for the plates with combinations of clamped and simply supported edges, without two opposite edges simply supported. The developed method as well as the accurate analytic results is well validated by the finite element method and very few analytic results from the literature.