Buckling and postbuckling of delaminated composite plates

dissertation

English

Buckling and postbuckling behaviour of a composite plate can be significantly influenced by the presence of delaminations, i.e. by regions where connectivity between layers is lost. Therefore, the aim of this work is to extend our knowledge about the buckling of delaminated plates, especially about the behaviour of plates with multiple delaminations and plates with delaminations which have irregular shape, because such damage more closely reflects the true nature of low-velocity impact induced damage in laminated plates. The thesis consists of three main parts. The first part comprises of the summary of analysis techniques used to investigate the behaviour of delaminated plates and presents the main results of the studies on the buckling of delaminated plates. A brief discussion of limits of computational analyses is also included. In the second part of the thesis, the computational model used to analyse the behaviour of delaminated plates is presented. The capability of the model to predict the postbuckling behaviour of delaminated plates is illustrated on several verification studies based on experimental and numerical analyses found in literature. Finally, in the third part, three studies on the buckling of plates with multiple delaminations and one study on the buckling response of plates with a delamination of an arbitrary shape are presented. Effects of several parameters on the buckling response such as ply orientation, number of delaminations, their shape and orientation, out-of-plane and in-plane position are discussed. Some implications of the studies for the design praxis are formulated.

Laminates, buckling, postbuckling, delamination, computational analysis

OBDRŽÁLEK, V.

2. 11. 2010

Brno