Plate veiling
Structural instabilities of plates

Let's consider an ideal plate, i.e. initially flat and made of an indefinitely elastic material, subjected to the exclusive action of a single membrane force N_x (resp. N_y, or N_xy) which induces compression in all or part of this plate.

• For a certain load intensity, the flat configuration of the plate becomes an unstable state of equilibrium: the plate is likely to buckle. The load corresponding to this level of stress is called the "elastic critical load" and is designated N_x,cr (resp. N_y,cr, or N_xy,cr). As a reminder (