Thermal buckling analysis of point-supported laminated composite plates in unilateral contact

This paper deals with the thermal buckling analysis of point-supported thin laminated composite plates. The analysis is performed for rhombic and rectangular plates and two cases of bilateral and unilateral buckling. In the unilateral buckling, it is assumed that the plate is in contact with a rigid surface and lateral deflection is forced to be only in one direction. The element-free Galerkin (EFG) method is employed to discretize equilibrium equations. Point supports are modeled in the form of distinct restrained circular surfaces through developing a numerical procedure based on the Lagrange multiplier technique. The unilateral behavior of the plate is incorporated in the analysis by using the penalty method and the Heaviside contact function. The final system of nonlinear algebraic equations is solved iteratively. Two types of point support arrangements are considered and the effect of different parameters such as number of point supports, plate aspect ratio and lamination scheme on the buckling coefficient of composite plates is investigated.