Two-dimensional analyses of delamination buckling of symmetrically cross-ply rectangular laminates

The conventional approach to analysis the buckling of rectangular laminates containing an embedded delamination subjected to the in-plane loading is to simplify the laminate as a beam-plate from which the predicted buckling load decreases as the length of the laminate increases. Two-dimensional analyses are employed in this paper by extending the one-dimensional model to take into consideration of the influence of the delamination width on the buckling performance of the laminates. The laminate is simply supported containing a through width delamination. A new parameter β defined as the ratio of delamination length to delamination width is introduced with an emphasis on the influence of the delamination size. It is found that (i) when the ratio β is greater than one snap-through buckling prevails, the buckling load is determined by the delamination size and depth only; (ii) as the ratio β continues to increase, the buckling load will approach to a constant value. Solutions are verified with the well established results and are found in good agreement with the latter.