On the use of bubble functions in the local buckling analysis of plate structures by the spline finite strip method

This paper augments bubble functions to the ordinary spline nite strip method in order to calculate the elastic local buckling coe cients of plates and plate structures. The results show that the use of bubble functions improves signi cantly the convergence of the spline nite strip method in terms of the strip subdivision, and therefore leads to smaller storage requirements for the global sti ness and stability matrices, and faster eigenvalue extraction. Benchmark numerical investigations are presented, including the study of plates with di erent boundary conditions under uniaxial and biaxial stresses, plates with di erent aspect ratios under shear, and a sti ened panel under combined shear and compression that has been studied elsewhere. These studies demonstrate that by implementation of the bubble functions, rapid convergence of the solution is obtained. The formulation is ideal for analysing local buckling under a variety of boundary and loading conditions.