Abstract
The concept of stiffness tailoring is investigated for improved buckling resistance of rectangular composite plates subject to general in-plane combined loading. The tailoring approach involves the piecewise-uniform redistribution of a portion of the given material with given orientations to create beneficial stiffness distributions across the planform of the plate. The resulting local nonuniformities in thickness and in membrane and bending stiffnesses combine to change the buckling response of the plate. Finite element models are used to calculate the prebuckling stress distribution and the buckling loads. The weight and average membrane shear stiffness are essentially unaffected by the tailoring. Optimum tailoring geometries are determined for a wide range of shear and transverse tension and compression loadings combined with longitudinal compression loading. Maximum improvements in the buckling loads of over 700% are shown possible with tailoring for some loading combinations compared with uniform plates. In general, the benefit of tailoring is greatest with low shear loads and high transverse tensile loads.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
