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ANALYSIS OF COMPOSITE LAMINATED PLATE

USING FEM
NETHRAVATHI C1 AND SREENIVASA M B2
1
PG SCHOLAR,STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT,V.T.U PG STUDIES,MYSURU,INDIA.
2
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT,V.T.U PG STUDIES,MYSURU,INDIA.

Abstract: A numerical analysis using finite element method(FEM) has been carried out to study the
buckling behavior of graphite/epoxy laminated composite plates subjected to inplane uniaxial and biaxial
compression loadings .In the present study, the effect of aspect ratio, number of plies and fibre orientation
on buckling behavior graphite/epoxy. The results shows that the buckling loads of a composite laminated
plate subjected to inplane uniaxial compressive loading decreases by increasing the plate aspect ratio ().It is
seen that the number of plies,inplane loads and aspect ratio () have a substantial influence on buckling
strength of composite laminated plate.

Key words : buckling analysis,aspect ratio,boundary condition,number of plies,symmetrically laminated

composite plate,uniaxial and biaxial compression loading.

1.INTRODUCTION principal structural materials used in early days .Thus

The rapid development of technology in the
field of material science has made structural
components slender with less weight, superior
specific strength and stiffness compared to
conventional materials.These materials are widely
used in many engineering applications like
aerospace, spacecraft nuclear structures, offshore and
marine structures. Many studies have showed that
such structures fail not due to high stress but due to
insufficient elastic stability of slender or thin walled
members. This results made to focus more on the
static stability and buckling characteristics of beam,
column plate and shell type of structures. The ability
of the structure to retain its equilibrium configuration
under loading is termed as stability and when loading
produces an abrupt change in shape of member it is
termed as instability. About 200 years ago L. Euler a
German scientist studied the first problem of elastic
instability concerned to lateral buckling of
compressed members. Wood and stone where the
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Eulers theory was not much used due to the
bulkiness of the structural elements. Buckling
property of many engineering structural elements
under compressive loading has always been an
important field of research.
Improvement in technology developed a
combined structure by joining two or more different
materials in macro level to meet the material
requirement which is called as composite material.
1.1 Composite materials
A composite material is one in which two or
more materials are combined to form a single
structure with an identifiable interface. Composite
materials have many advantages over conventional
materials in structural performance with their
superior strength to weight ratios as well as stiffness
to weight ratios. Laminated composites are widely
used in aerospace, automobiles and marine
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industries. Laminated composite are made up of
plies(layers) each ply being composed of straight
parallel fibres (e.g. glass, boron, graphite and
carbon)embedded in and bonded together by a matrix
material(e.g. epoxy resin, Polyether, ketone ,nylon).
Composite Laminates have high stiffness
and strength to weight ratios ,superior fatigue
response characteristics, facility to vary fibre
orientation, material and stacking pattern ,resistance
to electro chemical corrosion and other superior
material properties of composite. It requires better
understanding of the structural behaviour and failure
conditions for safe and more economical design
.Laminated composite plate mainly fail in buckling
due to presence of inplane loadings.
The orientation of the fibres and stacking sequence
has a large effect on the deformation and stress
throughout the laminate
FIG 1:Composite Laminates
1.1.1: Characteristics and Classification of
composite plates:
1. Fibrous composite materials: consists of
fibres in a matrix.
2. Laminated composite materials : consists
of layers of various materials
3. Particulate composite materials
composed of particles in a matrix
4. Combination of some or all of the three.
1.1.2: General theory and classification of simple
lamination type:
The following are the laminate arrangements which
are most widely used and simply analyzed
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1. Parallel ply : all plies at the same arbitrary
orientation
2. Unsymmetric cross ply: all plies oriented at
either 0 and 90.
3. Symmetric cross ply: all plies orientated at
either 0 or 90 and arranged symmetrically
about the midplane.
4. Alternating balanced angle ply: Even number
of plies oriented alternately at + and .
5. Symmetric balanced angle ply: Even number
of plies arranged symmetrically about the
midplane with an equal number of plies
oriented at + and at .
1.2: PLATES
Plates are flat structural elements whose
thickness is smaller than other dimensions and they
are the most widely used slender structural elements
subjected to both inplane and out of plane loadings.
FIG 2: Dimension, coordinate axes and
displacement systems of Rectangular plate
: Plates may be classified into three types :
Thin plates with small deflection
Thin plates with large deflection
Thick plates
Thin plates with small deflection : if the ratio of
thickness (h) to the smaller span length (a) shold be
less than 0.05 and the deflection (w) in z-direction is
less than thickness (t0 then the plates are considered
as thin plates with small deflections.
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Thin plates with large deflections : if the ratio of
thikness (h) to smaller span length (a) should be less
than 0.05 and the deflection (w) in z-direction is
greater than thickness (t) then the plates to be
considered as thin plates with large deflection
2. Buckling strength of simply supported composite
laminated plate for graphite epoxy, material with
various aspect ratio and number of plies and
different fibre orientation subjected to uniaxial and
biaxial compression load

Thick plates : if the ratio of thickness 9t) to the

smaller span length (a) is greater than 0.05, the plate
to be considered as thick plates.

2. Objectives:

To determine the

1. Buckling strength of simply supported isotrophic

plate with various aspect ratios when subjected to
uniaxial and biaxial loads
3.Geometry,boundary conditions and material
properties

For complex geometrical and boundary conditions,

analytical method are not so easily adaptable, so numerical
methods like finite element method have been used. In this
work, Eigen buckling analysis is used for predicting the
buckling load of a rectangular composite plate through the
use of finite element package ANSYS. The SHELL 281(8
noded shell element). The SHELL281 structural element is
chosen from ANSYS14.5 element library. SHELL281 has
Material constants 8
nodes
Youngs Poissons with
Fig 2 : SHELL 281 element (ANSYS element reference)
modulus ratio 6
Material
(E)in N/mm 2
() degre
Boundary Position of the edge es of
condition freed
Steel 210924 0.3
Simply U=w=x=0 @ V=w= om at
supported x=0 y=0@y=0 each
And And w= node,
w=x=0@x=a y=0@y=-b translati
on
along x,y ,z directions and rotations about nodal x,y and z-
axes. SHELL281 can be used for layered applications of a Table 3.1 :Geometric boundary condition
structural SHELL model up to 250 different layers are
permitted for application.

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Table 3.2: Isotropic material constants

4.RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS:
Case 1: Critical buckling load (Ncr ) for SSSS
isotrophic unperforated plate
a. Uniaxial compression loading having thickness
8mm.:Table 4.1 gives the value of Critical
buckling load for various aspect ratio() and
fig
Critical
4.1
a in b in Aspect Buckling
show
mm mm ratio () load (Ncr)
s the
variat Fig 4.1 : Variation of critical buckling load Ncr for SSSS
100 200 0.5 2343.3
ion of isotropic unperforated plate subjected to inplane Uniaxial
200 200 1.0 1706.1 critic Critical
al
300 200 1.5 1185.6 buckl
a in b in Aspect Buckling
ing mm mm ratio () load (Ncr)
400 200 2.0 1202.32 load
(Ncr), 100 200 0.5 3768.3
The critical buckling load of a plate having 200 200 1.0 1934.7
=0.5 is approximately,2,1.28,1 times higher
than the buckling load of plate having equal 300 200 1.5 1515.7
to 1.0,1.5 and 2 respectively.
400 200 2.0 1516.5
load.
b. Biaxial compression loading having thickness
8mm.: Table 4.2 gives the value of critical buckling load
(Ncr) for various aspect ratio() and fig 4.2 shows the
variation of critical buckling load, The critical buckling load
of a plate having =0.5 is approximately 1.3,1.5 and 0.9
times higher than the buckling load of plate having equal
to 1.0,1.5 and 2 respectively.

Table 4.1:Critical buckling load Ncr for SSSS isotrophic

unperforated plate with respect to aspect ratio() subjected
to inplane uniaxial compression loading having thickness
8mm.

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Critical buckling
Aspect a in mm b in mm load (Ncr)
Table 4.2:Critical buckling load Ncr for SSSS isotrophic ratio ()
8 plies 16 plies
unperforated plate with respect to aspect ratio() subjected
to inplane biaxial compression loading having thickness 0.5 50 100 26.43 203.05
8mm.
1.0 100 100 13.37 105.85

1.5 150 100 12.65 93.91

2.0 200 100 14.82 80.63

Table 4.3 : Critical buckling load (Ncr) for SSSS

graphite/epoxy composite laminate plate with respect to
aspect ratio () subjected to inplane uniaxial compression
loading with fibre orientation (0/90/-90/0)

Fig 4.2 :Variation of critical buckling load Ncr for SSSS

isotropic unperforated plate subjected to inplane Biaxial
load.

Case 2: critical buckling load(Ncr) fibre orientation

(0/90/-90/0)s for graphite /epoxy Composite laminated
plate
a. Uniaxial compression loading for 8 plies and 16
plies: Table 4.3 gives the buckling load (Ncr) for
graphite /epoxy Composite laminated plate having various
aspect ratio(), fig 3.3 and fig 3.4 shows the the variation of
critical buckling load (Ncr) for 8 plies and 16 plies.The
critical buckling load(8 plies)of a plate having =0.5 is
approximately,2, 2.1 and 1.8 times higher than the buckling
load of plate having equal to 1.0,1.5 and 2 respectively Fig 4.3 :Variation of critical buckling load(Ncr) for
and for 16 plies,critical buckling load (Ncr) having =0.5 is 8 plies with fibre orientation (0/90/-90/0)s subjected to
approximately, and 13 times higher than the buckling load inplane Uniaxial compression loading
of plate having equal to 1.0,1.5 and 2 respectively.

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aspect ratio () subjected to inplane biaxial compression
loading with fibre orientation (0/90/-90/0)s
Fig 4.4 :Variation of critical buckling load (Ncr) for
16 plies with fibre orientation (0/90/-90/0)s
subjected to inplane Uniaxial compression loading

b. biaxial compression loading for 8 plies and 16

plies:Table 4.4 gives critical buckling load (Ncr) for
various aspect ratio(),fibre orientation(0/90/-
90/0)s and fig 4.5 and 4.6 variation of critical
buckling load (Ncr).For 8 plies, critical buckling load
of a composite laminated plate having =0.5 is
approximately 3.8,9 and 12.5 times higher than
the buckling load of plate having equal to 1.0,1.5
and 2 respectively.For 16 plies, The critical
buckling load of a composite laminated plate
having =0.5 is approximately 2.9,1.8 and 2.2
times higher than the buckling load of plate having Fig 4.5 :Variation of critical buckling load(Ncr) for 8 plies
equal to 1.0,1.5 and 2 respectively. with fibre orientation (0/90/-90/0)s subjected to inplane
biaxial compression loading
Critical buckling
Aspect a in b in load (Ncr)
ratio () mm mm
8 plies 16 plies

0.5 50 100 26.83 249.61

1.0 100 100 14.43 131.77

1.5 150 100 17.42 129.69

2.0 200 100 16.93 146.57

Fig 4.6 :Variation of critical buckling load(Ncr) for 16 plies

with fibre orientation (0/90/-90/0)s subjected to inplane
biaxial compression loading

Case 3 : : Critical buckling load (Ncr) for SSSS

graphite/epoxy composite laminate plate with fibre
orientation
(0/30/-30/90)s

a. Uniaxial compression loading for 8 plies

and16plies:
Table 3.4 : Critical buckling load (Ncr) for SSSS
table 4.5 gives the value of Critical buckling load (Ncr)
graphite/epoxy composite laminate plate with respect to
for various aspect ratio(),fig 4.7 and fig 4.8 shows

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various aspect ratio().for 8 plies and 16 plies, The
critical buckling load of a plate having =0.5 is
approximately,1.75,1.5 and 1.5 times higher than the
buckling load of plate having equal to 1.0,1.5 and 2
respectively. For 16 plies, . The critical buckling load of
a plate having =0.5 is approximately, 1.85,1.9 and 1.7
times higher than the buckling load of plate having
equal to 1.0,1.5 and 2 respectively.

Aspect Critical buckling

ratio () a in b in load (Ncr)
mm mm 8 plies 16 plies

0.5 50 100 18.90 155.53

1.0 100 100 4.92 52.925

1.5 150 100 2.09 83.02

2.0 200 100 1.49 70.10

Table 4.5: Critical buckling load (Ncr) for SSSS

graphite/epoxy composite laminate plate with respect to
aspect ratio () subjected to inplane uniaxial compression
loading with fibre orientation (0/30/-30/90)s

Fig 4.8: Variation of critical buckling load(Ncr) for 16 plies

with fibre orientation (0/30/-30/90)s subjected to inplane
Uniaxial compression loading

b.Biaxial compression loading for 8plies and 16 plies: table

Fig4.7: Variation of critical buckling load (Ncr) for 8
plies with fibre orientation (0/30/-30/90)s subjected to
inplane Uniaxial compression loading
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3.6 gives the value of Critical buckling load (Ncr) for
variousaspect ratio(),fig 3.9 and fig 3.10 shows various
aspect ratio() for 8 plies and 16 plies. The critical buckling
load of a composite laminated plate having =0.5 is
approximately 2.8,2 and 2.1 times higher than the buckling
load of plate having equal to 1.0,1.5 and 2 respectively for
8 plies. The critical buckling load of a composite laminated
plate having =0.5 is approximately 3.1,1.7 and 1.5 times
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higher than the buckling load of plate having equal to
1.0,1.5 and 2 respectively for 16 plies

Aspect ratio a in b in Critical buckling

Table 4.6: Critical buckling load (Ncr) for SSSS () mm mm load (Ncr)
graphite/epoxy composite laminate plate with respect to 8 plies 16
aspect ratio () subjected to inplane biaxial compression plies
loading with fibre orientation (0/30/-30/90)s 0.5 50 100 19.34 202.09

1.0 100 100 6.98 65.88

1.5 150 100 9.84 119.32

2.0 200 100 9.45 136.97

Fig 4.9: Variation of critical buckling load(Ncr) for 8 plies

with fibre orientation (0/30/-30/90)s subjected to inplane
biaxial compression loading

Fig 4.10: Variation of critical buckling load (Ncr) for 16

plies with fibre orientation (0/30/-30/90)s subjected to
inplane biaxial compression loading

CONCLUSION

This study considers the determination of critical

buckling load of a composite laminated plate made up of
Graphite-Epoxy with all round simply supported plate
boundary condition.The considered laminated composite
plate has varying aspect ratio() 0.5-2.0 and fibre

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orientation(0/90/-90/0)s ,(0/30/-30/90)s.From the Mechanics research communications, 2009, vol.36,
present work following conclusions are drawn. pp933-938.

1. For Isotrophic plate the critical buckling load is 5. Priyanka Dhueveyana and Mittal.N.D, Buckling
maximum at the plate aspect ratio behaviour of an orthotropic composite laminate using
=0.5,and for =1.0 to 2.0 the critical buckling load FEA International journal of scientific Engineering
decreases about 31.8% under inplane uniaxial and Technology, 2012, vol.1, pp93-95.
compression loading.

2. For Isotrophic plate the critical buckling load is

maximum at the plate aspect ratio =0.5,and for
=1.0 to 2.0 the critical buckling load decreases
about 65-74% under inplane biaxial compression
loading.

3. The buckling load is maximum for the plates

having aspect ratio equal to 0.5 for all the fibre
orientations.

4. The Critical buckling load of composite laminated

plate for all the three fibre orientation having 8 and
16 plies subjected to inplane uniaxial compression
loading is approximately 28% to 23% higher than
the plate subjected to inplane biaxial loading for
=0.5-2.0 respectively.

REFERENCES

1. Abdulkareem AI Humdany and Emad Q.Hussein,

Theotical and numerical analysis for buckling of
Antisymmetric simply supported laminated plate
under Uniaxial loads, Journal of kerala
university,2012,vol.10,pp 149-160.

2. Eugenio Ruocco and Vincenzo Mallardo,Buckling

analysis of Levy type Orthotropic stiffened plate and
shell based on different strain displacement model,
International journal of non-liner
mechanics,2013,vol.50,pp 40-47.

3. Loptain.A.V and Morozov.E.V, Buckling of SSCF

rectangular orthotropic plates subjected to linearly
varying in-plane loading, Composite
structures,2011,vol93,pp1900-1909.

4. Murmu.T and Pradhan.S.C, Buckling of biaxial

compressed orthotropic plates at small scales,

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