Vibration and local instability of thermally stressed plates

The vibration and buckling of a double wedge square cantilever plate has been investigated. It is shown that the free vibration modes, which occur at Delta T ref = 0, transition into the buckled modes which occur at Delta T ref = Delta T ref-cr for the respective mode. Delta T ref-cr for a particular mode is defined as the magnitude of thermal load at which the frequency of the particular mode vanishes. The analysis yields the same number of buckling eigenvalues and buckling modes as there are vibration eigenvalues and vibration modes. Gradual application of the load in the analysis permits the change in each vibration frequency of interest and its associated mode to be followed up to the load at which the frequency of the mode becomes zero. This constitutes the limit of linear theory. As the load is increased, the thin edges of the plate begin to deform during vibration. This local deformation, which begins in the vibration mode, is shown to transition into the phenomena of local edge buckling at Delta T ref-cr for the mode.