Closed-Form Solutions for Buckling of Long Anisotropic Plates with Various Boundary Conditions under Axial Compression

Abstract

Closed-form solutions for buckling of long plates with flexural/twist anisotropy with the short edges simply supported and with the longitudinal edges simply supported, clamped, or elastically restrained in rotation under axial compression are presented. An energy method (Rayleigh–Ritz) is employed to obtain the critical buckling loads. The critical buckling loads are expressed in terms of minimum nondimensional buckling coefficients and stiffness parameters. The new closed-form solutions show an excellent agreement when compared to existing solutions and finite-element analysis. Due to their simplicity and accuracy, the new closed-form solutions can be confidently used as an alternative to computationally expensive structural analysis to assess buckling in the preliminary design phase of composite structures.