Ss. Wang et al., EFFECT OF MATERIAL NONLINEARITY ON BUCKLING AND POSTBUCKLING OF FIBER-COMPOSITE LAMINATED PLATES AND CYLINDRICAL-SHELLS, Composite structures, 33(1), 1995, pp. 7-15
An analytical study is presented in this paper on the effect of materi
al nonlinearity on buckling and postbuckling of fiber composite lamina
te plates and shells subjected to general mechanical loading. The mate
rial nonlinearity of the composite is modelled by power-law type, nonl
inear shear constitutive equations for each lamina. The nonlinear effe
ctive composite constitutive equations in an incremental form are inco
rporated into a geometrically nonlinear analysis for studying buckling
and postbuckling deformations of composite laminate structures. A mod
ified Riks' solution scheme with an updated Lagrangian formulation is
used to construct the equilibrium path during composite postbuckling.
Numerical examples are given to illustrate the effect of material nonl
inearity on buckling load, postbuckling stiffness, and associated mode
shape change of a composite structure under axial and pressure loadin
g. Influences of lamination parameters, geometric imperfection, and lo
ading mode on the postbuckling equilibrium path and load-bearing stren
gth of the composite structure with the nonlinear material properties
are also studied.