Buckling analysis of symmetrically laminated composite plates by the extended Kantorovich method

An extended Kantorovich method is employed to investigate the buckling problem of rectangular laminated composite plates with various edge supports. The principle of minimum total potential energy along with a separable displacement function is utilized to derive a set of governing ordinary differential equations. The buckling load and mode are determined from iterative calculations of the governing equations using the initial trial function which can be selected arbitrarily. The accuracy of this method is confirmed with the available Lévy and Rayleigh–Ritz solutions. The results demonstrate that the presented semi-analytical approach can be used to analyze the buckling of laminated unidirectional and cross-ply symmetrical plates with any combinations of simple, clamped, and free supports. Several numerical examples of buckling behavior of composite plates with various boundary conditions are also tabulated for future reference.