Hygrothermoelastic buckling response of composite laminates by using modified shear deformation theory

In this study, a finite element based formulation is developed for analyzing the buckling
and post-buckling of composite laminates subjected to mechanical and hygrothermal loads
using Modified Hyperbolic Shear Deformation Theory (MHSDT). The changes in the critical
buckling load are presented for different lamination schemes, thicknesses, material properties
and plate aspect ratios. In addition, post buckling analysis is performed for a composite plate
subjected to uniform in-plane thermal and moisture induced loadings by using MHSDT.
Matlab software has been used for programming the analysis. The results obtained by Matlab
codes are in a satisfactory consistence compared to the references. Thus, the developed
MHSDT has been validated for buckling and post buckling analysis of laminated plates in
hygrothermal environment.