Postbuckling Behavior of Unsymmetrically Layered Anisotropic Rectangular Plates

An analysis for the postbuckling behavior of unsymmetrically layered rectangular anisotropic plates is presented. Each layer is assumed to have arbitrary thickness, elastic properties, and orientation of orthotropic axes with respect to the plate axes. The governing nonlinear differential equations in the sense of von Karman are solved in conjunction with boundary conditions for clamped edges by use of the multiple Fourier method. In the case of simply supported edges, a solution based on the method is also obtained for unsymmetrical angle-ply plates. In the examples, a nine-term approximation to each series is used and load-deflection relations, bending moments, membrane forces are presented for clamped cross-ply and angle-ply and simply supported angle-ply plates with various aspect ratios. Numerical results obtained from the present solution are, in special cases, compared with available data.