Thermal Buckling of Piezolaminated Plates Subjected to Different Loading Conditions

A thermal buckling analysis is presented for simply supported rectangular laminated composite plates that are covered with top and bottom piezoelectric actuators, and subjected to the combined action of thermal load and constant applied actuator voltage. The thermomechanical properties of composite and piezoelectric materials are assumed to be linear functions of the temperature. The formulations of the equations are based on the higher-order laminated plate theory of Reddy and using the Sanders nonlinear kinematic relations. The closed-form solutions for the buckling temperature are obtained through the Galerkin procedure and solving the resultant eigenvalue problem, which are convenient to be used in engineering design applications. Numerical examples are presented to verify the proposed method. The effects of the plate geometry, fiber orientation in composite layers, lay-up configuration, different utilized piezoelectric materials, temperature dependency of material properties, thermal conductivity, and energy generation on the buckling load are investigated.