Buckling Analysis of Non-orthotropic Laminates by Means of B-Spline Functions

Abstract

Whereas the buckling of rectangular laminate plates with symmetrical layup and an effectively orthotropic behaviour is well understood, the situation gets more complicated when an arbitrary symmetrical layup is admitted. Then twist coupling has to be taken into account. This can be accomplished in a consistent way by an energetic variational approach. In doing so, the use of B-spline functions turns out to be very appropriate for the deflection representation in connection with various kinds of boundary conditions. Validating finite element analyses show the good efiiciency of B-spline functions for the buckling analysis. The eflect of twist coupling on the resultant buckling loads turns out to be considerable. It can be both conservative and non-conservative and should always be taken into account carefully.