THERMAL BUCKLING OF ANTISYMMETRIC ANGLE-PLY LAMINATED PLATES - AN ANALYTICAL LEVY-TYPE SOLUTION

The thermally induced buckling of antisymmetric angle-ply laminated plates with Levy-type boundary conditions are investigated by an analytical technique in conjunction with the concept of state-space. A new fundamental matrix and a corresponding state vector are proposed to predict the variations of critical thermal buckling temperature of laminated plates which are subjected to a uniform temperature increment. The laminates under consideration are moderately thick so that the first-order transverse shear deformation is accounted for by employing the thermoelastic version of Mindlin's first-order thick plate theory. The influencing parameters on the critical buckling temperature are lamination angle, length-to-thickness ratio, number of layers, aspect ratio, moduli ratio, and the boundary conditions of edges. The numerical results show a good agreement with some published data.