Effect of Random System Properties on Initial Buckling of Composite Plates Resting on Elastic Foundation

In this paper, the effects of randomness in the material properties and foundation stiffness parameters on the elastic buckling of laminated composite plate resting on elastic foundation subjected to uniform in-plane edge compression are studied. Higher order shear deformation theory has been used for the plates. The interaction between the plate and foundation is included in the formulation of a two-parameter Pasternak model. A C⁰finite element method is used for treating the random eigenvalue problem. The uncertain lamina material properties and the foundation stiffness parameters are modeled as independent basic random variables. A mean-centered first order perturbation technique is adopted to examine the stochastic characteristics of the buckling load. From the results presented for laminated composite plates resting on elastic foundations with different boundary conditions, the influence of variation of material constant, foundation stiffness parameters, edge in-plane forces, side-to-thickness ratio, plate aspect ratio, and variation in standard deviation of material properties on the buckling response has been investigated. The results have been compared with those available in the literature and from an independent Monte Carlo simulation.