Postbuckling response and failure of symmetric laminates under in-plane shear

This paper summarizes a study aimed at understanding the postbuckling behaviour and progressive failure of thin, simply supported symmetric rectangular laminates with various possible in-plane boundary conditions and under the action of in-plane shear loads. First-order shear deformation theory and geometric non-linearity, in the von-Karman sense, is used with a finite-element procedure. The 3D Tsai–Hill criterion is used to predict failure of lamina and the maximum stress criterion is used to predict the onset of delamination at the interface of two adjacent layers. The effect of in-plane boundary conditions, plate lay-ups, plate aspect ratio, fiber orientations and lamina material properties on the load deflection response, buckling load, first-ply failure load, ultimate load and the maximum transverse displacement associated with failure loads is presented.