Buckling analysis of composite laminated skew plate of variable thickness

Tapered composite plates are increasingly being used in various engineering applications. In variable-thickness laminate, the material and geometric discontinuities at ply drop-off locations leads to significant discontinuities in stress distributions. Elastic stability of variable-thickness composite laminated skew plate subjected to uniaxial in-plane compressive forces has been studied. The buckling analysis of the skew laminate plates of variable thickness are carried out by the bifurcation buckling implemented in finite element program ANSYS. A parametric study on tapered composite skew plate is conducted, considering the effects of skew angles, laminate layups, taper angles, boundary conditions on the buckling resistance of skew composite laminate plates are presented. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.