Effect of delamination of axially loaded homogeneous laminated plates

Abstract

A simple one-dimensional model has been developed and analyzed for predicting delamination buckling loads. The model is employed to predict critical loads for delaminated homogeneous plates with both simply supported and clamped ends. The effects of delamination position, size, and thickness on the critical loads are studied in detail for both sets of boundary conditions. The results reveal that for certain geometries the buckling load can serve as a measure of the load carrying capacity of the delaminated configuration. In other cases, the buckling load is very small and delamination growth is a strong possibility, depending on the toughness of the material.