Rhombic Laminates with Mass Variations under Dual-Axis Compression

Abstract

Biaxial buckling of the laminated composite rhombic (skew) plate with mass variations in the form of openings and adding extra mass at the center of the plate was studied using improved shear deformation theory (ISDT). The ISDT mathematical model incorporates third-degree variation of the thickness coordinate in the displacement formulation. In the presented theory, the use of shear correction factor was eliminated and a second-order variation of transverse shear strains through the plate thickness was implied. A computer-based algorithm based on the C0 finite-element formulation of the mathematical model was developed to analyze the buckling behavior of a laminated composite skew plate with openings and extra mass imposed at the center of the plate. Due to a lack of results in the literature based on the ISDT of the considered problem of biaxial buckling of laminated composite skew plates with openings cutout and extra mass imposed at the center of plate, the present results were validated with the suitable results available for laminated composite plates without openings/extra mass imposed at the center of plate with zero skew angle. The new results were obtained by varying the geometry, boundary conditions, ply orientations, and skew angles.