Abstract: Buckling of functionally graded skew thin plates under in-plane compressive loading is studied. The material properties are assumed to vary as a power form of thickness coordinate variable, without considering the influence of the temperature. Based on the classical plate theory, the equilibrium differential equations of a thin plate made of functionally graded material subjected to uniaxial loading condition are derived. By the coordinate transformation, the buckling differential equations of FGM skew thin plate are obtained in oblique coordinate system. The equations are discretized by differential quadrature method. Dimensionless numerical form solutions for a clamp supported skew plate made of functionally graded material under uniform load change are presented. The influences of the plate aspect ratio, gradient index, and deformation of neural plane on the buckling load difference are discussed. Results show that the critical buckling load change for the functionally graded plates are generally in between the corresponding values for homogeneous plates, the critical buckling load decrease with the decrease of the width-to-length ratio, but the critical buckling load decrease with the increase of the gradient index or the skew angle. The deformation of neural plane has great effect on the plate with small skew angle and high gradient index.

Key words: Buckling, Differential quadrature method, Functionally graded material, Skew thin plate