Buckling analysis of cracked plates using peridynamics

In this study, buckling analysis of cracked plates is performed by using peridynamics. A peridynamic Mindlin plate formulation is used and the numerical implementation is done using commercial finite element software, ANSYS. Critical buckling load is obtained by utilizing ANSYS Eigenvalue Buckling Analysis feature. Peridynamic results are compared against numerical and experimental results and a good agreement is obtained between different approaches. After verifying the formulation, it is utilised to investigate the effect of crack length, crack orientation and plate thickness on the critical buckling load values for a centrally and side-edge cracked plates subjected to clamped-free-clamped-free (CFCF) boundary conditions. Moreover, the effect of variable thickness on the critical buckling load is also examined.