Thermomechanical postbuckling of unilaterally constrained shear deformable laminated plates with temperature-dependent properties

This paper presents a study on the postbuckling responses of shear deformable laminated plates resting on a tensionless foundation of the Pasternak-type and subjected to combined axial and thermal loads. Two different postbuckling cases are considered, namely (1) the compressive postbuckling of initially heated plates and (2) the thermal postbuckling of initially compressed plates. The postbuckling analysis of laminated plates is based on the higher order shear deformation plate theory with a von Kármán-type of kinematic non-linearity. It is assumed that the foundation reacts in compression only. The thermal effects are also included and the material properties are assumed to be temperature dependent. The initial geometric imperfection of the plates is taken into account. The analysis uses a two-step perturbation technique to determine the postbuckling response of the plates. An iterative scheme is developed to obtain numerical results without using any assumption on the shape of the contact region. Numerical solutions are presented in tabular and graphical forms to study the postbuckling behavior of antisymmetric angle-ply and symmetric cross-ply laminated plates resting on tensionless elastic foundations of the Pasternak-type, from which results for conventional elastic foundations are obtained as comparators. The results reveal that the unilateral constraint has a significant effect on the postbuckling response of the plates subjected to combined axial and thermal loads when the foundation stiffness is sufficiently large. The results also confirm that the postbuckling responses are significantly influenced by temperature dependency and initial membrane stress as well as initial thermal stress.