Structural Similitude and Scaling Laws for Buckling of Cross-Ply Laminated Plates

Abstract

The increasing use of laminated composite components for a wide variety of applications in aerospace, mechanical, and other branches of engineering requires extensive experimental evaluation of any new design. Thus, it is extremely useful if a fullscale structure can be replaced by a similar scaled-down model, which is much easier to work with. The objective of this study is to investigate problems associated with the design of scaled models. Similitude theory is employed to develop the necessary similarity conditions. Both complete and partial similarity are discussed. The procedure consists of systematically observing the effect of each parameter and corresponding scaling laws. Then acceptable intervals and limitations for these parameters and scaling laws are discussed. In each case, a set of valid scaling factors and corresponding response scaling laws that accurately predict the response of prototypes from experimental models is introduced. Particular emphasis is placed on the cases of buckling of rectangular cross-ply laminated plates under uniaxial compressive and shear loads. This analytical study indicates that distorted models with a different number of layers and different material properties and geometries from those of the prototype can predict the behavior of the prototype with good accuracy.