THERMAL BUCKLING OF THICK ANTISYMMETRIC ANGLE-PLY LAMINATES

Abstract

The buckling behavior of moderately thick antisymmetric angle-ply laminates that are simply supported and subject to a uniform temperature rise is analyzed. Transverse shear deformation is accounted for by employing the thermoelastic version of the Reissner-Mindlin theory. Results for the classical thin-plate theory are obtained as a special case. Numerical results are presented for fiber-reinforced laminates and show the effects of ply orientation, number of layers, plate thickness, and aspect ratio on the critical buckling temperature. Finally, an optimization procedure is proposed for the design of laminates having maximum resistance to thermal buckling.