Buckling of laminated sandwich plates using an efficient plate model

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Chakrabarti, Anupam^; | Sheikh, Abdul Hamid

Affiliations: Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee 247667, Uttarakhand, India Tel.: +91 1332 285844; Fax: +91 1332 275568; E-mail: anupam1965@yahoo.co.uk | Department of Ocean Engineering and Naval Architecture, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 721302, India E-mail: hamid@naval.iitkgp.ernet.in

Note: [] Corresponding author.

Abstract: Buckling of laminated sandwich plates is studied using an efficient finite element plate model recently developed by the authors. The plate model is based on a refined higher order shear deformation theory, where the transverse shear stresses are continuous at the layer interfaces with stress free conditions at plate top and bottom. It is interesting to note that the plate model having all these refined features requires unknowns at the reference plane only. However, this theory requires C1 continuity of the transverse displacement, which is difficult to satisfy arbitrarily in any existing finite element. To deal with this, a new triangular element developed by the authors is used in the present paper.

Keywords: Sandwich plate, laminated face sheet, continuous transverse shear stress, triangular element, buckling

Journal: International Shipbuilding Progress, vol. 54, no. 1, pp. 63-81, 2007