Buckling of a uniformly compressed rectangular SSCF composite sandwich plate

Solution of the buckling problem for a uniformly compressed rectangular composite sandwich plate having two parallel edges simply supported, one edge clamped and the remaining edge free (the SSCF sandwich plate) is presented in the paper. A variational buckling equation is derived based on the Lagrange principle and first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT). The Kantorovich procedure is applied to reduce the original equation to a one-dimensional form. Subsequent application of the generalised Galerkin method leads to an analytical formula for the critical load which is verified by using finite-element analysis. Efficiency of the analytical formula derived is demonstrated for design cases in which constraints are imposed on the value of critical load. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.