Elastic-Plastic Buckling and Postbuckling Finite Element Analysis of Plates Using Higher-Order Theory

In this paper, some of the displacement-based plate theories are used to investigate the elastic-plastic analysis of plates in the framework of the finite element method including the buckling and postbuckling effects with the focus on the general third-order plate theory (GTPT). The plate calculation results were compared with the results obtained using 64-nodes solid elements involving Lobatto integration scheme. The problem is solved using the Newton–Raphson method applying modified Crisfield constant arc-length procedure. The results show good agreement of results and the GTPT can be acknowledged to fulfill essential criteria for application to the elastic-plastic analysis of thin and thick plates.