Influence of mechanical couplings on the buckling behaviour of thin-walled plates made of general laminates under compression

The analytical-numerical method (ANM) based on Koiter's theory was used to determine the static buckling loads and post-buckling equilibrium behaviour. In order to obtain the equations of equilibrium for plates, the classic laminate theory was used. The plate displacements were considered within the nonlinear geometrical relations. For special laminates (i.e., regular anti-symmetric angle-ply laminates), there are closed-form solutions of the equilibrium equations of the plate when displacements are slight. Those results were the same as the results produced with the presented methods. The differences in buckling stresses are very low, amounting to less than 5%.