Abstract
The paper deals with the validation of a recently proposed hexahedral solid-shell finite element in the buckling analysis of a laminated composite plate with delaminations. The object is to study the buckling behavior of structures with delaminations using the enhanced assumed strain (EAS) solid shell element with 5, 7 and 9 parameters. The EAS three-dimensional finite element formulation presented in this paper is free from shear locking and leads to accurate results for distorted element shapes. The developed FE model is used to study the effects of some parameters in the buckling load, such as the stacking sequences, delamination size, aspect ratio, width-to-thickness ratio. The feasibility of the proposed method is confirmed by numerical examples. Results show that using hexahedral solid-shell finite element in the buckling analysis is more efficient than using the enhanced solid finite element.