Numerical and Experimental Investigation of Mechanical and Thermal Buckling Loads of Composite Laminated Plates

Abstract

In this study, the effect of temperature, aspect ratio, number of layer andboundary conditions on critical buckling load of composite laminated plate isinvestigated experimentally and numerically. Simply-Simply-Free-Free andClamp-Clamp-Free-Free boundary conditions, three temperatures (40°C, 60°C and80°C) and four aspect ratio (1, 1.3, 1.5 and 2) will consider for the experimentalwork. The thickness of the plate was changed by increasing the number of layer.It can be seen that when the temperature changes from 40°C to 80°C themaximum value of Pcr is about (225 N/mm) at (T = 40°C, a/b = 2 and NL = 4), theminimum value of Pcr is about (11.70 N/mm) at (T = 80°C, a/b = 1 and NL = 2).Also, it can be shown that in the case of symmetric cross ply laminate (0o/90o/0o)when the thermal load increased by about 100 % the buckling load decrease byabout 50 % at aspect ratio equal to 1. Finally, It is shown that the critical bucklingload increases with increasing the aspect ratio at constant temperature, number oflayers and boundary conditions.