Thermal postbuckling analysis of imperfect laminated plates on softening non-linear elastic foundations

Abstract

A thermal postbuckling analysis is presented for a simply supported, composite laminated plate subjected to uniform or non-uniform parabolic temperature loading and resting on a softening non-linear elastic foundation. The formulation is based on the classical laminated plate theory and includes the plate-foundation interaction and thermal effects. The analysis uses a mixed Galerkin-perturbation technique to determine thermal buckling loads and postbuckling equilibrium paths, taking initial geometrical imperfections into account. Numerical examples cover the performance of perfect and imperfect, antisymmetric angle-ply and symmetric cross-ply laminated plates. Typical results are presented in dimensionless graphical form for different parameters and exhibit interesting imperfection sensitivity, e.g. the thermal postbuckling equilibrium path can be unstable.