Experimental and Numerical Buckling Analyses of Laminated Composite Plates under Temperature Effects

The aim of this study is to investigate, experimentally and numerically, the change of critical buckling load in composite plates with different ply numbers, orientation angles, stacking sequences and boundary conditions as a function of temperature. Buckling specimens have been removed from the composite plate with glass-fibre reinforcement at [0°] i and [45°] i (i= number of ply). First, the mechanical properties of the composite material were determined at different temperatures, and after that, buckling experiments were done for those temperatures. Then, numerical solutions were obtained by modelling the specimens used in the experiment in the Ansys10 finite elements package software. The experimental and numerical results are in very good agreement with each other. It was found that the values of the buckling load at [0°] on the composite plates are higher than those of other angles. Besides, symmetrical and anti-symmetrical conditions were examined to see the effect of the stacking sequence on buckling and only numerical solutions were obtained. It is seen that the buckling load reaches the highest value when it is symmetrical in the cross-ply stacking sequence and it is anti-symmetrical in the angle-ply stacking sequence.