Elastic stability of inhomogeneous thin plates on an elastic foundation

We study the elastic stability of infinite inhomogeneous thin plates on an elastic foundation under in-plane compression. The elastic stiffness constants depend on the coordinate variable in the thickness direction of the plate. The elastic foundation is represented as a Winkler-type model characterized by linear and nonlinear spring constants. First we derive the Föppl–von Kármán equations by taking variations of the elastic strain energy. Next we develop the linear stability analysis of the plate under uniform in-plane compression and explicitly derive the critical loads and wave numbers for particular three cases. The effects of the material inhomogeneity, material orthotropy and loading orthotropy on the critical states are examined independently. Finally, we perform a weakly nonlinear analysis of the plate at the onset of the buckling instability. With the multiple scales method, the amplitude equations for the unstable modes that provide insight into the mode type and its amplitude are derived and then the effect of the material inhomogeneity on buckling modes are evaluated qualitatively.