Influence of thickness variation of annular plates on the buckling problem

The aim of this work is to establish the coefficient that defines the critical buckling load for<br />isotropic annular plates of variable thickness whose outer boundary is simply supported and subjected to<br />uniform pressure. It is assumed that the plate thickness varies in a continuous way, according to an<br />exponential law. The eigenvalues are determined using an optimized Rayleigh-Ritz method with<br />polynomial coordinate functions which identically satisfy the boundary conditions at the outer edge. Good<br />engineering agreement is shown to exist between the obtained results and buckling parameters presented<br />in the technical literature.