THERMAL BUCKLING OF INITIALLY STRESSED THICK PLATES.

Equations of motion for a transversely isotropic thick plate with thermal effects in a general state of nonuniform initial stress, where the effects of transverse shear and rotary inertia are included, are derived. The method is to perturb the nonlinear equations of elasticity by an incremental deformation. The resulting equations are linearlized and integrated through the thickness of the plate to obtain the thermal elastic plate equations. A reduced set of equations for a thick plate with thermal effects is given. The thermal buckling problems are solved for a simply supported rectangular plate in a state of uniform compressive (or tensile) stress plus initial bending stress combined with uniform thermal compressive stress plus thermal bending stress. The effects of various parameters on thermal buckling loads are studied.