Buckling analysis of orthotropic plates by boundary element method

We propose a general direct boundary integral formulation for the buckling analysis of orthotropic plates according to the Kirchhoff's theory. The boundary integral equations necessary for solving the buckling problem are obtained from the integral representations earlier developed for the orthotropic plate bending analysis, by considering the in-plane buckling forces as unknown loadings distributed transversally in the plate domain. A simple discretization scheme for the plate boundary and its interior domain is adopted in order to establish the integral equations in matrix form.