A STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF FIBER WAVINESS ON THE BUCKLING CHARACTERISTICS OF LAMINATED PLATES

The equations of equilibrium of a composite plate with in-plane fiber waviness are derived and the effects of waviness on the buckling loads are studied. The plate is assumed to be in cylindrical bending and th e resulting eigenvalue problem is solved using a combination of a shoo ting algorithm and the secant method. A numerical example of a plate w ith sinusoidal fiber waviness shows that the buckling load decreases a s the amplitude of the waviness increases. However, results indicate t hat it is possible to enhance the stability characteristics of the pla te by introducing artificial fiber waviness to increase its buckling l oad.