Initial postbuckling response of anisotropic laminated rectangular plates

It has been shown that anisotropic plates can have unstable postbuckling behavior resulting in potential imperfection sensitivity. The present paper quantifies the degree of instability for rectangular, simply supported asymmetrically laminated plates. The analysis is based on asymptotic Koiter-type expansion of postbuckling response. The degree of postbuckling instability is quantified in terms of the reduction in load carrying capacity in the immediate postbuckling range. For graphite-epoxy plates it is found that this measure of instability is very small unless the lamination asymmetry is very pronounced.