ABSTRACT
Local buckling involves flexural displacements of the plate elements, with the line junctions between plate elements remaining straight, as shown in Figures 3.6, 3.7, 3.9, and 3.12. The elastic critical stress for local buckling has been extensively investigated and summarized by Timoshenko and Gere (Ref. 3.6), Bleich (Ref. 4.1), Bulson (Ref. 4.2), and Allen and Bulson (Ref. 4.3). The elastic critical stress for local buckling of a plate element in compression, bending, or shear is given by
where k is called the plate local buckling coefficient and depends upon the support conditions, and w/t is the plate slenderness, which is the plate width (w) divided by the plate thickness (t).
