buckling of a plate

huangyhg

buckling of a plate
just looking for some good recommendations for literature or resources on steel plate buckling.  this would be for situations with pin-pin or fix-fix plates in compression.  either from bending or just straight axial load.  just wondering what you guys use.  
it might help to know a little bit more about the application.
aisc has information on thin compression elements that can be used in some cases.  or if two sides of a plate were free, it could be treated as a column.
no particular application.  i'm just an eit wanting to learn about the buckling properties of steel plates.  i see it come up from time to time, and the engineers i know seem to just go for a conservative approach.  if you want an example....lets just say you have a plate in pure axial compression, sides are free, supports are fixed.
if the sides are free, it's just a column- look into column buckling formulas.
if it's a structural application, a flat plate will usually be a part of a beam or composite girder, and buckling would be treated accordingly.  aisc asd/lrfd has design criteria for thin compression elements that would be applicable.
if it's shaped into a cylinder, that's a different issue, and a number of tank and vessel codes as well as aisc have guidelines for compressive buckling or external pressure buckling.
loui1,
look for timoshenko's book, plate and shell theory.  it can be a little hard to read at times.
roark's formulas for stress and strain
timoshenko has another book titled "theory of elastic stability" which discusses rod, plate and shell buckling theory.  reading timoshenko is like taking a drink of water, except not from a drinking fountain but a fire hose!
if you just want the answers, roarks is one way to go.  i don't have a copy but have often borrowed my neighbors.
the aisc 2005 spec has design equations for strong-axis bending of plates wrt ltb.  you can start there and check out the references used by the manual.
the aisi also has similar provisions for plate buckling.  i wuold do the same, check out what references were used to derive the code equations.
books on plate and shell theory and theory of elasticity are also good bets, but put your thinking cap on to go through them.
timoshenko's "theory of elastic stability" is a good book, but also very dated.  a number of the issues he discusses have been vastly improved upon since the book was written.  "theory of plates and shells" is more useful, more modern (1959, i think), but doesn't discuss stability problems.
buckling of plates is covered in depth in the nasa astronautics structures manual volume 2 section c2 (page 691 of the pdf file). it is free and is linked here.
now that's one hell of a manual.  granted it's from 1971, i think it'd hold up in court, no?