Classical plate buckling theory as the small‐thickness limit of three‐dimensional incremental elasticity

Abstract Classical plate buckling theory is obtained systematically as the small‐thickness limit of the three‐dimensional linear theory of incremental elasticity with null incremental data. Various a priori assumptions associated with classical treatments of plate buckling, including the Kirchhoff–Love hypothesis, are here derived rather than imposed, and the conditions under which they emerge are stated precisely.