Finite Element Analysis of Thermal Buckling of Rectangular Laminated Composite Plates with Circular Cut-Out

In this work, thermal buckling analysis of symmetric and anti-symmetric laminated composite plates with a cut-out is presented. The plate is assumed to be subjected to a uniform temperature rise for different boundary conditions. The thermal buckling analysis is performed using the code developed in MATLAB software. The stiffness matrices and thermal force vector are derived according to first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT). To have more control on the mesh pattern around the cut-out, convenient meshes are manually constructed using a mesh generation algorithm in which mesh density around the hole can be controlled. The results of FEM code is compared with ABAQUS's solutions and with those available in the literature. After that, the effects of cut-out size, boundary conditions, plate aspect ratio, and stacking sequence on critical thermal buckling temperature are investigated for symmetric and anti-symmetric plates. Also, plates with cut-out located at positions other than the center of plate are investigated and useful conclusions are derived from the numerical results.