Compressive response of tapered curved composite plates based on a nine-node composite shell element

Tapered laminated structures have considerable potential for creating significant weight savings in engineering applications. The objective of the present work is to investigate the compressive response of curved composite plates with longitudinal internal ply-drop-off configurations. A nine-node tapered curved composite finite element is developed based on six well-established first-order shear deformation shell theories. The buckling loads obtained using Finite Element Method (FEM) are compared with that of the existing analytical and experimental results. A comprehensive parametric study is carried out and design guidelines for the tapered curved plates are established based on this study.