Prebuckling optimal design of orthotropic variable thickness plates for inplane loading

This paper is concerned with the optimal design of orthotropic rectangular plates for shear and compressive buckling loads. Expressions for the total potential as series summations are derived for double cosine thickness varying plates and hybrid double sine thickness varying plates. An efficient Fortran coded program for analysis of simply supported plates that utilizes the Rayleigh-Ritz method until convergence has been developed. It incorporates an optimization module that reactivates analysis as required. Four types of orthotropic plates were optimized in a one parameter optimization search. Results indicate a 33% increase in capacity for shear loading and an 89% increase in capacity for compressive loading.