Postbuckling and secondary buckling of rectangular fiber-metal laminates and glass-fiber reinforced composites under uniaxial compression

This article deals with the postbuckling and secondary buckling response of simply supported and clamped rectangular fiber-metal laminates (FMLs) and glass-fiber reinforced composite plates subjected to uniaxial compression. A novel FEM procedure is proposed in order to locate their secondary buckling point. The procedure is validated by comparisons with established literature results. Using validated FEM models, diagrams of the secondary buckling coefficient versus the plate aspect ratio are constructed. It is found that the secondary buckling load strongly depends on the aspect ratio. New analytical formulas are also derived for the approximation of the postbuckling load-shortening curves of the FMLs.

Automated summary

This article investigates the postbuckling and secondary buckling response of simply supported and clamped rectangular fiber-metal laminates (FMLs) and glass-fiber reinforced composite plates subjected to uniaxial compression. A novel FEM procedure is proposed to locate the secondary buckling point, and the correlation between the secondary buckling load and the plate aspect ratio is established.