BUCKLING AND POSTBUCKLING BEHAVIOR OF LAMINATED PLATES USING THE GENERALIZED NONLINEAR FORMULATION

In this paper the buckling and post-buckling analysis of symmetrically laminated cross-ply plates has been considered using the generalized formulation of which the von Karman type formulation is a special case. Unlike the von Karman type formulation, the governing equations of the present formulation are nonlinear in all the displacement parameters of the plate. This obviates the use of hitherto known solution techniques for nonlinear plate analysis. To overcome this difficulty the perturbation technique has been followed in this paper. Numerical results indicate that the two formulations differ by about 2.5% for thicker perfect plates and the difference ceases to exist as the imperfection value of the plate increases.