Postbuckling of imperfect rectangular composite plates under inplane shear closed-form approximate solutions

In this paper, the postbuckling behavior of rectangular orthotropic laminated composite plates with initial imperfections under inplane shear load is investigated in a closed-form analytical manner. The plates under consideration are assumed to be infinitely long in the longitudinal direction. At the longitudinal edges, two different sets of boundary conditions are considered, specifically 1) simply supported edges and 2) fully clamped edges. Using Timoshenko-type shape functions for both the initial bifurcational buckling analysis and the subsequent Marguerre-type postbuckling studies, closed-form analytical solutions for the buckling loads and for the postbuckling state variables are derived. A comparison with geometrically non-linear finite element computations shows that the derived analysis approaches are suitable for postbuckling studies in load ranges not too far beyond bifurcational buckling as they are currently relevant for e.g., composite airframe structural analysis and design. Due to their strictly closed-form analytical nature, the presented analysis methods can be used conveniently in engineering practice for all application purposes where computational time is a crucial factor, especially for preliminary analysis and design or optimization procedures.