Abstract
A geometrically nonlinear analysis of symmetric variable angle tow (VAT) composite plates under in-plane shear is investigated. The nonlinear von Karman governing differential equations are derived for postbuckling analysis of symmetric VAT plate structures which are subsequently solved using the differential quadrature method. The effect of in-plane extension-shear coupling on the buckling and postbuckling performance of VAT composite plates is investigated. The buckling and postbuckling behaviour of VAT plates under positive and negative shear is studied for different VAT fibre orientations, aspect ratios, combined axial compression and their performance is compared with that of straight fibre composites. It is shown that there can be enhanced shear buckling and postbuckling performance for both displacement-control and load-control and that the underpinning driving mechanics are different for each.
Highlights
Stability analysis of variable angle tow (VAT) composites under compression load has been studied extensively and response has been shown to have superior structural performance over conventional straight fibre composites (Hyer and Lee, 1991; Gurdal and Olmedo, 1993; Gurdal et al, 2008)
The buckling problem of VAT plates was solved by neglecting the nonlinear terms in Eq (9) and differential quadrature method (DQM) was applied to solve the resulting governing differential equations
The numerical study show the effect of extension-shear coupling on the buckling and postbuckling performance of VAT composite plates under different in-plane boundary conditions
Summary
Stability analysis of variable angle tow (VAT) composites under compression load has been studied extensively and response has been shown to have superior structural performance over conventional straight fibre composites (Hyer and Lee, 1991; Gurdal and Olmedo, 1993; Gurdal et al, 2008). The buckling and postbuckling behaviour of VAT plates under in-plane shear is investigated. The concept of tow steering provides more freedom to design light-weight composite structures with improved structural performance when compared to traditional straight fibre designs. Biggers and Fageau (1994) studied the concept of stiffness tailoring for improving the shear buckling performance of composite plates by redistributing the layups with certain fibre orientations across the planform of the plate. Their study showed a 50% improvement of shear buckling load over straight fibre composites by redistributing ±45 plies along the diagonal directions. Waldhart (1996) used the Rayleigh–Ritz method to study the buckling performance of tow steered VAT plates under uniform end-shortening and in-plane shear load. The effects of extensional-shear coupling ðA16; A26Þ were not considered in their shear buckling study. Nemeth (1997) performed a parametric study on the buckling behaviour of long symmetrical
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