Elastic Buckling Coefficients for Long, Unstiffened Plates

Long, unstiffened plates are thin plates stiffened at only one edge parallel to the direction of stress. These occur in various shapes, including a T-shaped section. For modeling purposes, the plates can be assumed to be simply supported along the stiffened edge parallel to the applied stress and along the transverse edges at the ends of the plates. The plates can be subjected to a range of linear stress gradients. For plates subjected to linear stress gradients with maximum compression at the simply supported edge and maximum tension at the free edge, elastic buckling coefficients are determined. A finite difference approach is taken, since an assumption of a simple geometric buckled shape (for use in a method such as the Galerkin method) cannot be made. The results from the finite difference solution and an equation that approximates the solution are presented, along with available elastic buckling coefficients for other linear stress gradients.