Thermal post-buckling of laminated and isotropic rectangular plates with fixed edges: comparison of experimental and numerical results

Post-buckling behaviors of laminated composite and isotropic rectangular plates subjected to various thermal changes are studied. Geometric imperfections are taken into account since they play a fundamental role. The plate is modeled using a nonlinear, higher order shear deformation theory. Plates with clamped edges are considered. A pseudo-arc length continuation method is used to obtain numerical results. Laboratory experiments have been performed in order to compare to the numerical calculations.