Post-buckling analysis of plates?

Hi Amir,

First of all you should have an efficient solver to solve the non-linear equations of post-buckling analysis. In the buckling analysis one might face a bifurcation point which not easy to pass by. I mean at this point you have 2 solutions and you have to choose which path to follow. One idea is to add a small factor of eigen modes that you might have to the initial geometry to pass such points. There are many papers dealing with this issue and they mostly disscussed about a combination of eigen modes and its effect on the final results or opening further bifurcation pathes. I would recomment you to start reading the documentation of Abaqus in the postbuckling section to get an idea what you plan to do. Then, move to more scientific papers. Hope this helps!

I suggest you take a look at the course notes for Carlos Felippa's nonlinear FE course:

http://www.colorado.edu/engineering/CAS/courses.d/NFEM.d/Home.html

He doesn't discuss a plate element specifically but he does present a beam element and solution techniques for solving the nonlinear equations. If you understand and implement those you will be well on your way toward implementing a plate element.