An efficient finite strip procedure for initial post-buckling analysis of composite laminated members

Abstract

An efficient procedure based on the semi-analytical finite strip method with newly introduced invariant matrices is developed to analyze the initial post-buckling of composite laminated members. The nonlinear strain-displacement equations obtained from the Von-Karman assumption and three plate theories, which are classical thin plate theory, first-order shear deformation plate theory, and high-order shear deformation plate theory can be used to evaluate the initial post-buckling performance of the composite laminated members. According to the principle of the minimum potential energy, the formulations of the finite strip method can be deduced. In order to improve the computational efficiency, the pre-integrated invariant matrices are introduced, which can convert the complicated analytical integral calculation of the stiffness matrix into a relatively simple matrix multiplication calculation. Several benchmark problems are tested based on the proposed method and other conventional methods. The corresponding comparison results show that: (1) the proposed method is proved to be feasible and accurate for those three different theories; (2) compared with the other conventional finite strip methods, the proposed method is much more efficient since it requires the integration of the stiffness matrix only once no matter how many iterations are needed, (3) and the advantage of time-saving is increasingly remarkable as the number of iterations increases.