The behaviour of compressed plate with a central cut-out, made of composite in an asymmetrical arrangement of layers

The study investigated thin carbon/epoxy composite plate elements with a central cut-out of regular shape, under uniform compression. The aim of the study was to investigate the possibility of using these elements as elastic elements whose stiffness depends on tailoring the cut-out geometry and laminate ply orientation. To ensure stable operation of the structure in the postbuckling range, the plate was assigned the properties of an unsymmetrical lay-up with extension-twisting and extension-bending couplings. The structure was analysed numerically by the finite element method. The scope of numerical simulations included linear analysis of an eigen problem using procedures for geometrically nonlinear analysis and the commercial simulation software ABAQUS (R). The aim of the analysis was to determine a laminate ply orientation generating the lowest buckling mode (flexural-torsional) in order to ensure stable operation of the structure in the postbuckling range.