Buckling of Symmetrically Laminated Composite Plates Using the Element-free Galerkin Method

An element free Galerkin (EFG) method is presented for buckling analyses of isotropic and symmetrically laminated composite plates using the classical plate theory. The shape functions are constructed using the moving least squares (MLS) approximation, and no element connectivity among nodes is required. The deflection can be easily approximated with higher-order polynomials as desired. The discrete eigenvalue problem is derived using the principle of minimum total potential energy of the system. The essential boundary conditions are introduced into the formulation through the use of the Lagrange multiplier method and the orthogonal transformation techniques. Since the dimension of the eigenvalue problem obtained by the present method is only one third of that in the conventional finite element method (FEM), solving the eigenvalue problem in the EFG is computationally more efficient compared to the FEM. Buckling load param-eters of isotropic and symmetrically laminated composite plates for different boundary conditions are calculated to demonstrate the efficiency of the present method.