Buckling Behavior of Long Anisotropic Plates Subjected to Elastically Restrained Thermal Expansion

Summary An approach for synthesizing buckling results and behavior for thin balanced and unbalanced symmetric laminates that are subjected to uniform heating or cooling and elastically restrained against thermal expansion or contraction is presented. This approach uses a nondimensional anal-ysis for infinitely long, flexurally anisotropic plates that are subjected to combined mechanical loads and is based on useful nondimensional parameters. In addition, stiffness-weighted laminate thermal-expansion parameters and compliance coefficients are derived that are used to determine critical temperatures in terms of physically intuitive mechanical-buckling coefficients. The ef-fects of membrane orthotropy and membrane anisotropy are included in the general formulation. Many results are presented for some common laminates that are intended to facilitate a structural designer’s transition to the use of the generic buckling design curves. Several curves that illus-trate the fundamental parameters used in the analysis are presented, for nine contemporary mate-rial systems, that provide physical insight into the buckling response in addition to providing useful design data. Examples are presented that demonstrate the use of the generic design curves. The analysis approach and generic results indicate the effects and characteristics of elastically re-strained laminate thermal expansion or contraction, membrane orthotropy and anisotropy, and flexural orthotropy and anisotropy in a very general and unifying manner.