EXACT ELASTICITY SOLUTION FOR BUCKLING OF COMPOSITE LAMINATES

An exact elasticity solution is presented for the buckling of a simply -supported orthotropic plate whose behavior is referred to as cylindri cal bending. The general class of problems involving the geometric con figuration of any number of orthotropic layers bonded together and sub jected to an inplane compressive load is also analyzed by making use o f the uniform prebuckling stress assumption which is equivalent to the membrane assumption used in plate theories. The closed-form expressio ns for the displacements and stresses are derived and the nonlinear ei genvalue equations are presented which are used to solve for critical loads. The results obtained from the exact solution are compared with the critical loads furnished by the classical laminate theory, the fir st order and the refined third order shear deformation theory. The sol ution provides a means of accurate assessment of existing two-dimensio nal plate theories. (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.