Thermomechanical buckling of laminated composite plates with higher-order transverse shear deformation

Abstract A higher-order displacement field is developed for the analysis of the thermomechanical buckling of composite plates subjected to thermal or mechanical load. The displacement field contains the same number of dependent variables as in the first-order shear deformation theory, but accounts for continuity of in-plane displacements and transverse shear stresses across each layer interface. Exact closed-form solutions of symmetric cross-ply laminates are obtained and the results are compared with other theory solutions. A coefficient θ including effects of transverse shear deformation on critical temperature and critical load is introduced.