Buckling and postbuckling analysis of rectangular plates resting on elastic foundations with the use of the spectral methodBuckling and postbuckling analysis of rectangular plates resting on elastic foundations with the use of the spectral method Peer-Reviewed Journal Publication Δημοσίευση σε Περιοδικό με Κριτές 2015-10-122012enBuckling and contact effects for a von Kármán’s plate, unilaterally connected with a nonlinear elastic tensionless foundation are investigated. The foundation is modeled as nonlinear elastic (Winkler-type) and shear deformable (Pasternak-type) medium. Compressive and tensile loading forces along the edges of the plate are considered. The spectral method is developed for the discretization of the boundary value problems. A parametric analysis of compressive and tensile loadings is given. Bifurcation phenomena of the solution of the equations are explored. The iterative scheme with the path-following algorithm is employed to solve the resulting system of nonlinear algebraic equations. Numerical results are presented. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering205-208213–220 Stavroulakis Georgios Σταυρουλακης Γεωργιος Aliki D. Muradova Elsevier Greek mathematics mathematics greek greek mathematics Applied mechanics Engineering, Mechanical mechanics applied applied mechanics engineering mechanical