Buckling and Post-Buckling of Bidirectional Porous Beam Under Bidirectional Hygrothermal Environment

In this paper, buckling and nonlinear post-buckling behaviors of a bidirectional porous (BDP) beam are investigated under bidirectional hygrothermal environment. Euler–Bernoulli beam theory with the von Kármán nonlinearity is employed to derive the nonlinear variable coefficient governing differential equations based on Rayleigh quotient method. Analytical solutions of critical buckling load and load–deflection equilibrium path in post-buckling are deduced for the single directional varying (SDV) porous beam. The general numerical solutions for bidirectional varying (BDV) porous beam are obtained by differential quadrature finite element method (DQFEM) with Newton–Raphson iteration method based on the variation principle. The high accuracy of the present numerical method with higher computing efficiency is verified by comparison with published reports and the analytical results in this work. Parametric analysis on effects of the porosity bidirectional distributions, porosity coefficients, distributions of hygrothermal environment and boundary conditions on buckling load and post-buckling response is carried out to enhance the buckling and deformation resistances in design, manufacture and usage of porous structures. The results show that the bidirectional porosity pattern, linear and nonlinear hygrothermal distribution and boundary conditions play a significant role on buckling critical external load and critical hygrothermal increments, buckling form and post-buckling path.