Sing, Yung S.Haftka, Raphael T.Watson, Layne T.Plaut, Raymond H.2013-06-192013-06-191988http://hdl.handle.net/10919/19825The buckling load of laminated plates having midplane symmetry is maximized for a given total thickness. The thicknesses of the layers are taken as the design variables. Buckling analysis is carried out using the finite element method. The optimality equations are solved by a homotopy method which permits tracing optima as a function of total thickness. It is shown that for any design with a given stacking sequence of ply orientations, there exists a design associated with any other stacking sequence which possesses the same bending stiffness matrix and same total thickness. Hence, from the optimum design for a given stacking sequence, one can directly determine the optimum design for any rearrangement of the ply orientations, and the optimum buckling load is independent of the stacking sequence.application/pdfenIn CopyrightTechnical reportTR-88-14http://eprints.cs.vt.edu/archive/00000099/01/TR-88-14.pdf