Secondary buckling of laminated composite plates

The paper discribes the phenomenon of secondary buckling in plates that are clamped along the loaded edges and simply supported along the adjacent unloaded edges. An experiment is described which is used to study secondary buckling. Empirical data are presented to verify that the numerical analysis developed, which is based on the first-order shear-deformable finite element method, accurately predicts the occurence of secondary buckling. The analysis is then used to study the influence on secondary buckling of the displacement constraints on the unloaded edges. The influence of laminate orthotropy is also discussed.