Global buckling of thin-walled laminated composite columns

Resumo

The search for lighter and larger structural components makes the use of fiber-reinforced laminated
components increasingly slender. However, the increase in slenderness makes the structure more flexible, which
can cause stability problems and large displacements. As a result, buckling has a great influence on composite
material column designs, so their failure can occur with stress lower than the strength of the material. In this
way, the evaluation of the stability of these structures is of great importance because it allows for predicting the
load capacity. However, one of the main objectives of the industry is to replace experimental tests with numerical
simulations, since in tests of composite material structures, numerous and expensive tests are usually required.
Therefore, this work aims to study of global buckling of laminated composite channel-section columns. Two
approaches are employed in this context. The first approach consists of a three-dimensional beam finite element

for stability analysis of thin-walled laminated composite. Regarding the second approach, it relies on the Rayleigh-
Ritz framework assumes that the axial strain is neglected, and the column only buckles according to the minor

axis of bending, evaluating the behavior of channel-section columns, with different layups when subjected to
compressive loads. Both strategies are based on a fully coupled constitutive matrix, and the results obtained were
compared with shell finite elements.