Thermoelastic stability of laminated orthotropic circular plates

Abstract

Axisymmetric stability and thermal-buckling equations are established for circular plates composed of polarorthotropic layers subjected to mechanical loads depending only onr and thermal fieldsT=T(r, z). Alternative fourth order systems of two coupled differential equations are suggested in terms of the slope β andeither the radial displacementu or a stress function Ψ. The eigenvalue problem is formulated for quasi-heterogeneous composite plates and a closed-type solution is given for certain thermal-buckling problems in the form of Bessel functions of first kind and fractional order. Possibility of an analogy between a thermal and mechanical stability problem is shown and variation of eigenvalues with anisotropy parameters is noted. Numerous examples are presented indicating that suitable lamination of composite circular plates may transcend the buckling loads of individual constituents.