Design of blended/tapered multilayered structures subjected to buckling constraints

A general analytical procedure is proposed to design tapered laminated composite structures. It is based on: 1) the introduction of two variables representing a laminate configuration, 2) the analytical determination of the lower bound of the number of layers in each of the segments constituting the construction, 3) the definition of the reference sublaminate which configuration is transferred to all segments/parts of the construction, 4) the gradual building of configurations for symmetric balanced laminates having odd or even number of plies. The solution is verified by the comparison with results existing in the literature for both inner and outer tapers. A multi-panel composite structure is considered to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method. As usual, in a such class of problems, the whole construction is divided into segments/panels. The individual segments are subjected to the simultaneous action of in-plane, tensile or compressive and shear loads. The present results demonstrate the simplicity and effectiveness of the method and non-uniqueness of solutions. The paper intends to clarify the physical sense of the discussed problem.