Methods of finite element analysis of arbitrary buckling forms of sandwich plates and shells

Two statements of the problem of arbitrary buckling forms (BFs) (including synphasic, antiphasic, mixed flexural, flexural-shear, and shear forms in the tangential directions) of general-form sandwich shells and two schemes of its solution by the FEM are given. The first of the schemes is based on the use of refined linear equations for determination of the precritical stress-strain state and linearized equations of neutral equilibrium with all parametric addends necessary to determine the critical loads and reveal the possible BFs. The second one uses the general geometrically nonlinear relations of elasticity theory for investigation of the whole deformation process up to buckling in terms of a modified incremental (stepwise) statement of the problem. Examples of solution of particular problems are given.Center for Study of Dynamics and Stability, Tupolev Kazan' State Technical University, Kazan', Tatarstan, Russia. Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 36, No. 4, pp. 473–486, July–August, 2000.