Buckling of laminated composite plates by a new element based on higher order shear deformation theory

Abstract

The simple higher-order shear deformation theory proposed by Reddy has been successfully implemented in a triangular element recently developed by the authors. In this paper the element is applied to buckling of composite plates to study its performance. In this plate theory the transverse shear stress has parabolic through thickness variation and it is zero at top and bottom surfaces of the plate. Moreover, it does not introduce any additional unknown in the formulation. Thus, the plate theory is quite simple and elegant but it cannot be implemented in most of the elements, as the plate theory demands C 1 continuity of transverse displacement along the element edges. This has inspired the authors to develop this new element, which has shown an excellent performance in static analysis of composite plates. To demonstrate the performance of the element in the problem of buckling, examples of isotropic and composite plates under different situations are solved. The results are compared with the analytical solutions and other published results, which show the precision and range of applicability of the proposed element in the present problem.