Thermal budding of shear-deformable composite laminated plates by the spline finite strip method

Description is given of the development of the spline finite strip method for predicting the critical buckling temperatures of rectangular composite laminated plates. The analysis takes place in two distinct parts, namely an in-plane thermal stress analysis in the prebuckling stage followed by a buckling analysis using the determined in-plane stress distribution. The buckling analysis takes place in the context of first-order shear deformation plate theory. The permitted lay-up of the laminates is quite general, within the constraint that the plate remains flat prior to buckling, and the boundary conditions are versatile. The distribution of temperature can be non-uniform in the plane of the plate. A range of applications of the developed procedure is presented and numerous comparisons are made with the results of previous studies. The spline finite strip method is shown to be versatile and accurate, with good convergence characteristics. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.