Buckling Analysis of Rectangular Laminated Composite Plates With An Edge Delamination Under Compressive Load

A buckling analysis of rectangular laminated composite plates with an edge delamination under in-plane compressive loading is performed using the finite element method. Such plates may be considered as simplified models of stiffener plates of a stiffened panel. The buckling load and buckling mode are obtained by solving an eigenproblem. In an unconstrained analysis, physically inadmissible modes may appear because of the overlap between separated sublaminates in the delaminated region. To eliminate overlap, constraints are added iteratively on the entire overlapped area using penalty function method. The validity and superiority of the analysis method in predicting buckling load and buckling mode are shown in comparison with the experimental and analytical results available in the literature. Numerical results show the effect of delamination width and depth and boundary conditions on the buckling load.