Thermo-mechanical buckling analysis of anisotropic multilayered composite and sandwich plates by using refined variable-kinematics theories

Advanced and refined variable-kinematics plate theories built with a hierarchical approach in an extended framework of Carrera's unified formulation (CUF) are combined with Ritz and Galerkin methods to deal with a thermo-mechanical buckling analysis of anisotropic multilayered composite and sandwich plates. Buckling interaction curves and stability envelopes for different thermal and mechanical loading combinations are presented. The influence of the kinematics description and the expansion orders upon the results accuracy is evaluated. The effect of the transverse normal deformation on critical temperature parameters is thoroughly investigated. Convergence and results accuracy are discussed.