Buckling and vibration of finite-length composite prismatic plate structures with diaphragm ends, part II: Computer programs and buckling applications

Abstract

In a companion paper details have been given of multi-term finite strip formulations for determining the buckling stresses and natural frequencies of vibration of composite prismatic plate structures of finite length and with diaphragm ends. The formulations are based in turn on the use of shear deformation plate theory and classical plate theory, and include a number of versatile and refined features. Here the implementation of the theoretical work is described. The computer programs BAVAMPAS and BAVAMPAC are introduced and discussed briefly. Thereafter the main body of the paper is concerned with describing numerical applications using these programs. These applications are restricted in this work to problems of buckling under a live applied stress system which might comprise shear stress and direct stress. A wide range of buckling applications is considered, concerning single plates through to complicated plate structures and involving homogeneous, isotropic material through to anisotropic laminated composite material and, in one case, to an unsymmetrically-laminated structure exhibiting bending-stretching material coupling.