Buckling of Laminated Plates with Adhesive Joints

The buckling behavior of laminated plates with adhesive joints under uniaxial compression was investigated analytically and experimentally. For the analysis, a two-dimensional nonlinear finite element code was developed and the buckling loads of the laminated plates were extracted from the calculation of the smallest eigenvalue. A testing frame was used to measure experimentally the buckling strength and deformation of the specimen with a single-stepped lap joint. The buckling loads decreased as the length of adhesive layer decreased and the thickness of adhesive layer increased. When the stacking sequence of the composite laminates was [θ/−θ]_2s , the buckling loads decreased as o increased. Close agreement was obtained between the analytical predictions and the experimental results. Improved buckling strengths of the composite laminates were obtained when the difference between the Young's modulus of adhesive and the longitudinal modulus of the laminated plates was decreased.