Initial buckling of curved panels of generally layered composite materials

Abstract An initial buckling analysis for cylindrically curved panels made of generally layered composite materials is presented. Four kinds of boundary conditions and the combination of axial compression and shear forces are considered. Two coupled, fourth-order partial differential equations are solved by the use of multiple Fourier series, in which more exact constants within the characteristic beam functions are introduced so that better orthogonality of the series and, therefore, more exact buckling loads are obtained. The influence of curvature, fibre angles, stacking sequence and panel aspect ratios is investigated. An interesting relationship between the critical axial load and shear forces is found for mid-plane symmetric panels. Comparison of present work with experimental results shows fairly good agreement.