Buckling of folded plate structures subjected to partial in-plane edge loads by the FSDT meshfree Galerkin method

This paper presents a meshfree Galerkin method that is based on the first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) to study the elastic buckling behaviour of stiffened and un-stiffened folded plates under partial in-plane edge loads. The un-stiffened folded plates are modelled as assemblies of flat plates. The stiffness and initial stress matrices of the flat plates are derived by the meshfiree Galerkin method. A treatment is implemented to modify the stiffness and initial stress matriees, and the matrices are then superposed to obtain the stiffness and initial stress matrix of the entire folded plate. The analytical process for stiffened folded plates is similar, except that the effects of the stiffeners must be taken into account. Because no mesh is required, the proposed method is superior for studying problems that would involve remeshing in the finite element method. Several examples are employed to show the convergence and accuracy of the proposed method. The results obtained show good agreement with the results computed from the finite element analysis software ANSYS. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.