Buckling analysis of woven glass epoxy laminated composite plate

Buckling behavior of laminated composite plates subjected to in-plane loads is an important consideration in the preliminary design of aircraft components. The sizing of many structural subcomponents of the aircraft structures is often determined by stability constraints. The objective of the current study is to understand the influence of the length-to-thickness ratio, the aspect ratio, the fiber orientation and the cut-out shapes on the buckling load for the glass epoxy laminated composite plate in clamped-free-clamped-free configuration by FE analysis using MSC Patran/Nastran. Initially, buckling analysis was carried out on aluminum plates, both; experimentally and numerically; for the two different geometric configurations to predict the critical buckling load and the test results were compared with the FEA predictions, to check the validity of the analysis methodology. The same methodology was further followed for analyzing the buckling behavior of the composite plates. The results shows the effect of orientation of fiber, aspect ratio, cut-out shape and length-to-thickness ratio on the buckling of the glass epoxy laminated composite plate