Thermal Buckling Analysis of Rectangular Panels Subjected to Humped Temperature Profile Heating

This research investigates thermal buckling characteristics of rectangular panels subjected to different types of humped temperature profile heating. Minimum potential energy and finite-element methods are used to calculate the panel buckling temperatures. The two methods give fairly close thermal buckling solutions. ‘Buckling temperature magnification factor of the first kind, eta’ is established for the fixed panel edges to scale up the buckling solution of uniform temperature loading case to give the buckling solution of the humped temperature profile loading cases. Also, ‘buckling temperature magnification factor of the second kind, xi’ is established for the free panel edges to scale up the buckling solution of humped temperature profile loading cases with unheated boundary heat sinks to give the buckling solutions when the boundary heat sinks are heated up.