Local buckling of moderately thick stepped skew viscoelastic composite plates using the element-free Galerkin method

In this paper, the quasi-static stability of moderately thick skew viscoelastic composite plates subjected to in-plan forces is analyzed using the element-free Galerkin method. The study is based on the first-order shear deformation theory and the method of effective moduli. The shape functions are constructed using the moving least squares approximation and the essential boundary conditions are introduced into the formulation through the Lagrange multiplier method and the orthogonal transformation techniques. The method is programmed and several numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the scope and efficacy of the procedure. Also, local buckling of viscoelastic stepped plates is studied.