On the three-dimensional undulation instability of a rectangular viscoelastic composite plate in biaxial compression

Within the frame work of the second version of small precritical deformation in the three-dimensional linearized theory of stability of deformable bodies (TDLTSDB), the undulation instability problem for a simply supported rectangular plate made of a viscoelastic composite material is investigated in biaxial compression in the plate plane. The corresponding boundary-value problem is solved by employing the Laplace transformation and the principle of correspondence. For comparison and estimation of the accuracy of results given by the TDLTSDB, the same problem is also solved by using various approximate plate theories. The viscoelasticity properties of the plate material are described by the Rabotnov fractional-exponential operator. The numerical results and their discussion are presented for the case where the plate is made of a multilayered viscoelastic composite material. In particular, the variation range of problem parameters is established for which it is necessary to investigate the undulation instability of the viscoelastic composite plate by using the TDLTSDB. Russian translation published in Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 45, No. 1, pp. 93–108, January–February, 2009.