Buckling of Simply Supported Rectangular Reissner-Mindlin Plates Subjected to Linearly Varying In-Plane Loading

This paper is concerned with the buckling analysis of simply supported rectangular Reissner-Mindlin plates subjected to linearly varying edge loads. An analytical solution is developed and the effect of load intensity variation on the critical load is investigated. The solution is verified with the commercial computer code ANSYS. It is observed that the results of the present solution are in excellent agreement with those of ANSYS. The inaccuracy of the currently cited data in some design handbooks is highlighted.