Shear and compression buckling analysis for anisotropic panels with centrally located elliptical cutouts

An approximate analysis for buckling of biaxial- and shear-loaded anisotropic panels with centrally located elliptical cutouts is presented in the present paper. The analysis is composed of two parts, a prebuckling analysis and a buckling analysis. The prebuckling solution is determined using Lekhnitskii's complex variable equations of plane elastostatics combined with a Laurent series approximation and a boundary collocation method. The buckling solution is obtained using the principle of minimum potential energy. A by-product of the minimum potential energy equation is an integral equation which is solved using Gaussian quadrature. Comparisons with documented experimental results and finite element analyses indicate that the approximate analysis accurately predicts the buckling loads of square biaxial- and shear-loaded panels having elliptical cutouts with major axes up to sixty percent of the panel width. Results of a parametric study are presented for shear- and compression-loaded rectangular anisotropic panels with elliptical cutouts. The effects of panel aspect ratio, cutout shape, cutout size, cutout orientation, laminate anisotropy, and combined loading on the buckling load are examined.