DELAMINATION BUCKLING AND GROWTH OF COMPOSITE LAMINATED PLATES WITH TRANSVERSE-SHEAR DEFORMATION

An analytical method was presented to determine the delamination buckl ing load and the growth of one-dimensional delaminated beam-plates. In this study, the symmetry in delamination with respect to the center o f the beam-plate was not assumed. The delamination was arbitrarily loc ated in the longitudinal and thickness directions. The effects of the delamination length, and location on the buckling load and the growth were investigated with consideration of the transverse shear deformati on. Results of the analysis showed that the delamination buckling load was dependent on the configuration of the delamination. For the relat ively thick delamination, the buckling load of a center located delami nation was higher than that of an off-center delamination. The shear d eformation effect lowered the buckling loads and increased the energy- release rates. The expreiments on delaminated graphite/epoxy unidirect ional specimens were also performed to determine the buckling load and to observe the growth characteristics. Results of the experiments sho wed good agreement with analytic results and there existed various pos tbuckling characteristics depending on the configuration of delaminati on.