RASD 20 3

11th International Conference

1-3 July 2013
Pisa

ON THE BEHAVIOR OF POST-BUCKLED PLATES

Lawrence N. Virgin1* and Ted Lyman2
1

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Duke University
Durham, NC 27708, USA
E-mail: l.virgin@duke.edu
2

Post-Doctoral Research Fellow

Los Alamos National Lab
Los Alamos, NM, USA
E-mail: tcl5@duke.edu

Keywords: vibration, post-buckling, plates, structures, continuation

ABSTRACT
When loaded beyond their initial critical loads, plates continue to exhibit positive stiffness,
and it is useful to gain some insight into possible equilibrium configurations, natural frequencies and vibration mode shapes in the post-buckled regime. In this paper use is made
of continuation methods, whereby a solution to an underlying problem is tracked including
into the heavily post-buckled regime. The stability of resulting equilibrium paths is automatically assessed since the method relies on the computation of local Jacobian matrices. When
paired with a Galerkin approximation, continuation methods are shown to be well suited to
solving non-linear buckling problems. In addition to providing a robust solution method
for nonlinear equations, it is relatively easy to extend the continuation approach to extract
natural frequency and mode shape information. Using the continuation package AUTO, primary and remote secondary equilibrium branches are identified, and followed as a function
of axial load. The effect of initial geometric imperfections are included together with some
comparisons with experimental data.
1.

INTRODUCTION

Lightweight aerospace structures frequently have structural components that may operate
into the post-buckled range. A wide class of structure can be categorized as flat plates (see
e.g., [17]). An especially interesting phenomenon is mode jumping, where the natural postbuckled path becomes unstable and the structure dynamically snaps to a remote equilibrium
[810]. However, it is also possible that a remote equilibrium configuration that, despite being
stable, is only realized if the system is subject to a large perturbation. If inertia is considered,
there is also an interplay between the change in stiffness of the structure and its dynamic
modal characteristics [1113]. For post-buckled plates, linearized natural frequencies and
mode shapes can be extracted for small perturbations about nonlinear static deflections. The
numerical method of continuation is utilized in this paper [14, 15].

2.

BACKGROUND

The von Karman equations are used as the basis for plate analysis in this paper. Since they
are one of the standard approaches in the analysis of plates, and because they cannot be
introduced briefly, we simply state that the governing equations are set-up such that they can
be manipulated using a Galerkin technique in terms of a Fourier expansion associated with
assumed deflection (that satisfies certain boundary conditions). More details can be found in
[6]. The resulting algebraic equations are then solved using a continuation approach. Again,
in the interests of space this standard technique is not covered in detail here, and the interested
reader is referred to [15]. Suffice it to say that this approach basically involves path-following
nonlinear solutions x satisfying
x = f(x, )
(1)
in which is the control parameter. In the current context x relates to the coefficients describing the deflected shape (w = w(x)) and is the axial load. This approach is related to
Newton-Raphson with a corrector-predictor step in order to track a solution (wherever it may
go). The open-source package AUTO is used [14].
3.

THE UNDERLYING FUNDAMENTAL BEHAVIOR

We shall focus on one of the simplest cases: a thin, uniaxially-loaded, simply-supported

square plate. A schematic picture is shown in Fig. 1(a): Under these conditions the axial

Figure 1: (a) A simply-supported square panel, (b) the classical super-critical pitchfork bifurcation at buckling, (c) dependence of the natural frequency on the axial load.
load P x is gradually increased until a critical value is encountered (Pcr ) where the flat configuration becomes unstable and the structure buckles (w/ne0) into one of two symmetric
configurations. This is shown schematically in part (b), the normal form of which is the classical super-critical pitchfork bifurcation. The potential energy, V, at a specific post-critical
loading level, is shown superimposed and we see the classic double-well shape with the
two minima corresponding to the co-existing post-buckled equilibria. In part (c) is shown
how the natural frequency drops to zero at the critical point, but then starts to increase as the
post-buckled equilibrium path is followed. At this level of axial load the unstable trivial equilibrium has an imaginary natural frequency (associated with negative stiffness). If the system
is perfectly symmetric, then the linear natural frequencies within each potential energy well
are equal, at a given load level.
3.1

Effect of initial geometric imperfections

It is well-known that the behavior of axially-loaded structures in general, and buckling in particular, tends to be heavily influenced by small geometric effects, especially those that tend to
break symmetry [12]. Fig. 2(a) shows this behavior schematically. Here, there is a preferred

deflection under axial load as the system is biased to deflect in a particular direction, for the
equilibrium paths w , w at a given load. We also see that the (squared) natural frequency
now no longer drops to zero but rather veers to a small value in the vicinity of buckling before increasing into the post-buckled range. The natural frequency of oscillations still occur
about either post-buckled equilibria, although they are slightly different. The complementary
remote equilibrium solution would only be picked up if the system were pulled to the side of
negative deflections, and these would also be accompanied by unstable paths and imaginary
frequencies but these are omitted from the plot. The label P cr is used to indicate the critical

Figure 2: (a) The effect of an initial geometric imperfection, (b) the behavior of the fundamental natural frequency through buckling.
load for the initially perfect case. There are, of course, higher critical buckling loads but
since the structure buckles at the lowest value, these are (apparently) not of much practical
value. However, as we shall see, they still have a role to play for highly buckled behavior
under large perturbations.
4.

RESULTS FOR THE FULL PLATE

Using three modes in each direction the full plate equations were solved. Fig. 3(a) shows the
primary post-buckled branch (the unstable equilibrium branch is shown as a dashed line), but
only positive deflections are plotted. Also shown is the case in which the plate has an initial

Figure 3: (a) The primary equilibrium paths for the perfect (black) and imperfect (red) plate,
(b) the lowest four natural frequencies as a function of axial load.
curvature (in the positive deflection) corresponding to the plate thickness. The complemen-

tary paths and corresponding natural frequencies are not included in this plot. As expected
the distinct nature of the instability has been lost and the plate deflection gradually increases
with axial load.
Part (b) of this figure shows the lowest four natural frequencies. We see a gradual dropping
of the lowest (fundamental) frequency to zero at buckling. The lowest frequency (now associated with the non-trivial solution branch) then increases in to the post-buckled range. This is
the same form of behavior seen schematically in Fig. 2(b). The next three lowest frequencies
are also plotted. The corresponding natural frequencies about the imperfect equilibrium path
(shown in red) are shown also. Given the relatively large value of the initial imperfection,
these frequencies hardly reduce at all, i.e., there is considerable (and potentially useable)
post-buckled stiffness in the plate.
Fig. 4 shows the equilibrium path originating from the second lowest critical point on the
trivial path. It is interesting to observe that this path later stabilizes, such that for an axial load
of more than twice the initial critical load the plate appears to have two stable equilibria (for
positive directions of the deflection). Part (b) shows the corresponding imperfect result, and

Figure 4: (a) The first two non-trivial equilibrium paths for the perfect plate, (b) the corresponding paths for the imperfect plate, (b) the lowest four natural frequencies as a function
of axial load for the new remote path, perfect (black), and imperfect (red).
although the new stable branch has been pushed to higher loads it still persists. In this figure
the deflection of the plate is couched in terms of the L2 -norm of the Fourier coefficients to
avoid nodal lines. Part (c) shows the first four natural frequencies about the new equilibrium
branch (only) for both perfect (black) and imperfect (red) geometries.
Suppose we have an axial load acting that is about four times as high as the initial critical
load for the geometrically perfect configuration. If the load had been monotonically increased
from zero (the typical case) then the deflection would follow the natural primary path with
an L2 -norm developing close to 12 (for either the perfect or imperfect cases, and indicated
by the right large data point in parts (a) and (b). However, while maintaining the level of this
axial loading the plate can be pushed onto the other co-existing equilibrium configuration
(with an L2 -norm growing to about six). These are indicated by the left data points in parts
(a) and (b)). Thus we see that although the second lowest bifurcation from the unstable trivial
branch, which initiates a path that is itself initially unstable, the subsequent re-stabilization
has physical meaning if a sufficiently large disturbance is given to the system. That is, there
are at least two (and possibly four) co-existing equilibrium configurations for the plate at
sufficiently large axial compression.

5.

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

Some preliminary experimental studies were conducted. Fig. 5 shows some relevant details.
The plate was made of polycarbonate (Youngs modulus of 2.4 GPa and density of 1.2 g/cm3 )
of dimensions 304.8 mm by 304.8 mm with a thickness of 1.55 mm. The boundary conditions
were designed to produce as close to pinned as possible. The vertical edges consisted of a
series of two columns of Delrin spheres (part (b)) and V-grooves along the top and bottom
(the loaded edges). Axial loading was supplied by adding weights to the top edge. The out-

Figure 5: The experimental configuration, (a) the (polycarbonate) plate mounted in the test
rig, (b) a detail of the simply-supported boundary conditions (on the vertical edges), (c) measurement locations.
of-plane deflection was measured using a Micro-Epsilon optoNCDT 1302 laser displacement
sensor, located at the three points indicated in part (c).
Fig. 6 shows a summary of the experimental results. A Southwell plot technique [12] was
used to estimate an initial geometric deflection of amplitude 0.18h. Part (a) of the figure
displays the primary equilibrium branch for the (necessarily) imperfect geometry. The plate
deflection grows with the magnitude of the axial load analogous to the analytical results
shown in Figs. 3 and 4. A typical deflected shape (at P x /Pcr = 4.35) is shown in the upper
right inset. However, the other three equilibrium configurations were obtained by manually
pulling the plate across the (unstable) flat configuration such that the other configurations
are found. For example the inner branches were obtained by appropriately ousting and
pulling on the plate in order to promote the second-mode shape that remains stable (once it
has been located). We see that there are coexisting (full sine wave corresponding to a mode
two) deflections on either side. These are the branches emanating from the already unstable
flat configuration, but as mentioned earlier, would not have been obtained under a natural
(monotonically increasing) loading path. Two sets of data points are shown for each path
since data was acquired during unloading as well as loading.
Unfortunately the damping present in the experimental system did not allow any natural
frequencies to be extracted from the experimental system in terms of free vibration under
significant axial loading. The pinned boundary conditions tended to provide a degree of unwanted rotational restraint with axial load. In fact, this is not unexpected in of the theoretical
molding of damping effects [17], in addition to the practical issue of maintaining appropriate
boundary conditions. However, some forced vibration testing was able to confirm some of
the natural frequencies under conditions of light axial loading.

Figure 6: (a) The equilibrium paths of the plate including the remote path. The solid lines
are AUTO, data points from experiment, (b) The deflected shapes provide snapshots along
the vertical centerline for P x /Pcr = 4.35. Dashed curves were obtained from AUTO, Solid
curves with data points from experiment.
6.

CONCLUSIONS

This paper reported on a continuation-based approach to obtaining all the equilibrium configurations of an imperfect, uniaxailly-loaded, simply-supported thin panel, including deflections deep into the post-buckled regime. An interesting remote solution associated with a
re-stabilized branch emanating from a higher buckling mode was identified. This approach
has also been shown to work well for plates with other boundary conditions, cylindrical shells,
and also in order to obtain natural frequencies and vibration modes. Some limited experimental studies confirmed much of the analysis, although increased damping under axial loading
prevented extraction of usuable natural frequencies.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
TCL was supported by a NASA GSRP Fellowship.

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