Dynamic instability of composite plates subjected to non-uniform in-plane loads

In this paper, the dynamic instability of a shear deformable composite plate subjected to periodic non-uniform in-plane loading is studied for four sets of boundary conditions. The static component and the dynamic component of the applied periodic in-plane loading are assumed to vary according to either parabolic or linear distributions. Initially, the plate membrane problem is solved using the Ritz method to evaluate the plate in-plane stress distributions within the prebuckling range due to the applied non-uniform in-plane edge loading. Subsequently using the evaluated stress distribution within the plate, the equations governing the plate instability boundaries are formulated via Hamilton's variational principle. Employing Galerkin's method, these partial differential equations are reduced into a set of ordinary differential equations (Mathieu type of equations) describing the plate dynamic instability behaviour. Following Bolotin's method, the instability regions are determined from the boundaries of instability, which represents the periodic solution of the differential equations with period T and 2T to the Mathieu equations. The instability regions are determined for uniform, linear and parabolic dynamic in-plane loads using first-order and second-order approximations. Numerical results are also presented to bring out the effects of span to thickness ratio, shear deformation, aspect ratio, boundary conditions and static load factor on the instability regions.