Thermal buckling response of shear flexible laminated anisotropic plates using a three-node isoparametric element

A recently developed three-node plate element with full integration scheme is extended to solve the problems of thermal buckling response of laminated composite square and skew plates. The plate element is based on the first-order shear deformation theory primarily suitable for moderately thick plates, but is also capable of handling thin plates without difficulty. The shear locking effects are nullified through use of shear correction terms in the transverse shear strain components. Thermal buckling temperatures including the critical one and mode shapes are numerically investigated. The present element shows excellent performance in the moderately thick to very thin plate regime. Results computed using the present element are generally in close agreement with the available analytical and higher order finite element methods solutions. The results computed using the present element are also compared with those due to QUAD4 element of NASTRAN (which supports only symmetric laminates) and SHELL99 element of ANSYS. Interesting results pertaining to the effects of shear deformation, lamination, skewness, etc., are discussed.