On initial postbuckling of composite plate assemblies by semianalytical procedure

This article deals with the buckling and postbuckling analysis of thin-wall ed composite structures made of assemblies of plates by means of a semianal ytical approach. Both open and closed sections are analyzed. An orthotropic constitutive model is introduced in order to evaluate composite material b ehavior. The proposed method is shown to be quite efficient from a computat ional point of view and to offer significative advantages in optimization d esign procedures over the finite-element method. Some examples are discusse d in detail.