Buckling of the SSFF rectangular orthotropic plate under in-plane pure bending

The paper deals with the solution of the buckling problem for a rectangular orthotropic plate with two parallel free edges. The other two parallel simply supported opposite edges of the plate are loaded by a linearly distributed in-plane load which is equivalent to the pure in-plane bending. Buckling analysis is performed using the Levy-type solution and subsequent finite-difference approximation of the boundary-value problem. Solution of the corresponding eigenvalue problem yields the critical buckling coefficient and critical load. The problem is solved for isotropic and orthotropic composite plates. The design chart has been obtained for the isotropic plates with various aspect ratios from which the corresponding critical loads can be found. Critical buckling coefficients are determined for composite plates with various aspect ratios and angles of the reinforcement orientation. The optimum material reinforcement structure providing the maximum value of critical load is determined.