Assessment of the Buckling Behavior of Square Composite Plates with Circular Cutout Subjected to In-Plane Shear

This paper aims at evaluating the effect of various parameters on the buckling load of square cross-ply laminated plates with circular cutouts. The parameters considered in this study are: (1) cutout size (2) cutout location (3) fiber orientation angle and (4) type of loading. Three types of in-plane loading were considered; namely, uniaxial compression, biaxial compression and shear loading. The reduction in the buckling load due to the increase of cutout size was significant in the case for shear loading as compared to uniaxial and biaxial compression. For relatively small size cutouts, a better performance was achieved if the cutout is kept close to the edge of the plate, however, for relatively large size cutouts, a higher buckling load is achieved if the cutout is kept in the middle of the plate. Several other imperative findings based upon the various parameters are also presented in this study.