An extended Ritz formulation for buckling and post-buckling analysis of cracked multilayered plates

An extended Ritz formulation for the analysis of buckling and post-buckling behaviour of cracked composite multilayered plates is presented. The formulation is based on: (i) the First-order Shear Deformation Theory to model the mechanics of the multilayered plate; (ii) the von Kármán's theory to account for geometric non-linearities; (iii) the use of an extended set of approximating functions able to model the presence of an embedded or edge crack and to capture the crack opening fields as well as the global behaviour within a single cracked domain. The numerical results of the buckling analyses and the equilibrium paths in the post-buckling regime are compared with the results from finite elements simulations, confirming the accuracy and potential of the formulation.