Buckling analysis of symmetrically laminated composite plates including the effect of variable pre-stress field using the Ritz method

A buckling solution capable of accounting for prebuckling stress field heterogeneities is proposed. Oftentimes the same structural elements that restrict the out-of-plane displacement of the edges of a plate may also constrain their in-plane movements and cause heterogeneous prebuckling stress fields. The effect of these constraints and the consequent prebuckling stress field heterogeneity is vastly overlooked in the context of approximate...