INELASTIC THERMAL BUCKLING OF METAL MATRIX LAMINATED PLATES

A method is proposed for determining the critical temperature changes that cause inelastic thermal bifurcation buckling of metal matrix composite plates. The inelastic behavior of the metallic matrix is described by an elastic-viscoplastic temperature-dependent constitutive law; the fibers are allowed to be either elastic or elastic-viscoplastic material. The approach is based on the applied thermal load and the history-dependent instantaneous effective thermomechanical properties of metal matrix composites, which are established by a micromechanical analysis. The method is illustrated by the prediction of the inelastic thermal buckling of SiC/Ti metal matrix angle-ply laminated plates by employing the classical and first-order shear deformable laminated plate theories.