Structural Engineering & Statics
where the load goes
Generator

The plate-buckling generator

Rendered here at the parameters it defaults to, with every essay that calls it — which is the same list as the blast radius of changing it.
A 8 mm plate, and the width it can beThe elastic critical stress of a plate in compression against its width, with the yield stress drawn across it. Below 370 mm the plate reaches yield before it buckles; above it the plate ripples first, and the fraction of the width still carrying load falls away — at 700 mm only 47 per cent of it is still working.1002003004005006007000200400600plate width (mm)slender beyond 370 mmyieldcritical stress — inverse square in the widthwhat the plate actually delivers, over its full width

1 essay calls plate-buckling. The drawing above is what it returns with no arguments at all; every call below passes it something, because a placement that passes nothing draws whichever member of the family the generator happens to default to rather than the one its essay argues about.

Where it is called

Changing this generator changes every one of these figures.

1002003004005006007000200400600plate width (mm)slender beyond 370 mmyieldcritical stress — inverse square in the widthwhat the plate actually delivers, over its full width Stability

The plate that ripples, and the width that is left

A wide thin plate in compression buckles at a stress that has nothing to do with the strength of the material. It then goes on carrying load — the middle drops out, and the edges work harder.

The whole library