Solutions of the von Kármán plate equations by a Galerkin method, without inverting the tangent stiffness matrix

Large deflections of a simply supported von Kármán plate with imperfect initial deflections, under a combination of in-plane loads and lateral pressure, are analyzed by a semianalytical global Galerkin method. While many may argue that the dominance of the finite element method in the marketplace may make any other attempts to solve nonlinear plate problems to be redundant and obsolete, semi- and precise analytical methods, when possible, simply serve as benchmark solutions if nothing else. Also, since parametric variations are simpler to access through such analytical methods, they are more useful in studying the physics of the phenomena. In the present method, the Galerkin scheme is first applied to transform the governing nonlinear partial differential equations of the von Kármán plate into a system of general nonlinear algebraic equations (NAEs) in an explicit form. The Jacobian matrix, the tangent stiffness matrix of the system of NAEs, is explicitly derived, which speeds up the Newton–Raphson iterative method if it is used. The present global Galerkin method is compared with the incremental Galerkin method, the perturbation method, the finite element method and the finite difference method in solving the von Kármán plate equations to compare their relative accuracies and efficiencies. Buckling behavior and jump phenomenon of the plate are detected and analyzed. Besides the classical Newton– Raphson method, an entirely novel series of scalar homotopy methods, which do not need to invert the