Thermal postbuckling of rectangular plates on Pasternak elastic foundations (Q1111068)

Thermal postbuckling of thin plates has not been studied extensively. Axisymmetric thermal postbuckling of circular plates and doubly-symmetric thermal postbuckling of square plates on Winkler foundations have been investigated by \textit{K. K. Raju} and \textit{G. V. Rao} [Comput. Struct. 28, No.2, 195-199 (1988; Zbl 0627.73057) and 18, 1179-1182 (1984; Zbl 0554.73045)] using finite element method. This paper presents an approximate analytical solution for the thermal postbuckling of thin isotropic rectangular plates attached to Pasternak elastic foundations. Plates with opposite edges clamped or simply-supported are considered. The deflection is approximated by a single-term shape function and the compatibility equation is solved exactly for the stress function. Galerkin's method is applied to the equation of equilibrium to obtain an equation for the postbuckling response. It has been shown that the thermal buckling mode depends on the Winkler parameter of the foundation. The effect of the foundation parameters on the thermal buckling behaviour of plates is investigated.