A Numerical Study of the Buckling and Failure Characteristics of Laminated Composites with Elliptical Holes

An investigation of the buckling and failure characteristics of laminated composites with elliptical holes has been conducted. To predict critical buckling load and first ply failure load, we performed a three-dimensional finite element analysis. The critical buckling load and corresponding buckling modes were predicted by solving an eigen-value problem. After the buckling modes were calculated, the failure analysis was performed to estimate the first ply failure load as a post buckling response. To predict the first ply failure load, we used Tsai-Hill's failure criterion. All these numerical analyses were performed using the three dimensional finite element code “CompAna3D” developed in this research. Using CompAna3D, the effects of hole size, hole aspect ratio, and hole distance on the buckling and failure responses were evaluated numerically in thin laminated plates under compressive loading