Investigation of hole effects on the critical buckling load of laminated composite plates

Abstract

In this study, the effects of the hole diameter on the buckling behavior of glass-fiber-reinforced, laminated composite rectangular plates were investigated both experimentally and numerically. As the test specimens, E-glass/epoxy symmetric-ply composites with eight layers were manufactured using the hand lay-up technique and drilled with different hole diameters ranging from 10 to 40 mm. The laminated composite plates were arranged with different symmetric orientation angles such as [(0°/90°)2]s, [(-15°/15°)2]s, [(-30°/30°)2]s and [(-45°/45°)2]s. The experimental critical-buckling loads of the plates were found by clamping the bottom and upper edges and then these results were compared with the results obtained with the numerical analysis. The determination of the critical buckling loads for the laminated composite plates with different hole diameters was performed using the ANSYS 12.1® finite-element-analysis software. The numerical analysis showed good agreement with the experimental results for different hole diameters and fiber orientation angles. It was concluded that the critical buckling loads strongly depend on the diameter of the hole and fiber orientation angles.