Effect of Design Heuristics on the Compression and Shear Buckling Performance of Infinitely Long Plates With Bending-Twisting Coupling

This article investigates the effect of design heuristics, including ply percentages and ply contiguity constraints, on the compression and shear buckling performance of Bending-Twisting coupled infinitely long laminated plates with simply supported edges. The buckling solutions are presented as contour maps, representing non-dimensional buckling factors, which are superimposed on the lamination parameter design spaces for laminates with standard ply orientations. The applicability of the results extends beyond the current certification envelope, comprising symmetric laminate configurations. Indeed, the contour maps are applicable to two recently developed databases containing non-symmetric and symmetric laminates with either Bending-Twisting or Extension-Shearing Bending-Twisting coupling. The contour maps provide insights into buckling performance improvements that are non-intuitive and facilitate comparison between hypothetical and practical designs. The databases are illustrated through point clouds of lamination parameter coordinates, which demonstrate the effect of applying design heuristics