Eigensensitivity analysis of moisture-related buckling of marine composite panels

In this paper, an approximate closed-form solution is presented to compute the moisture-related buckling of symmetric angle-ply laminates. The environment corresponds to a steady state condition, which provides a uniform moisture distribution for the laminate. The laminate consists of four layers [θ/−θ]_s constructed of low, moderate and high stiffness ratio materials. Comparative results using the Rayleigh–Ritz method provides a means of assessing the accuracy of the expression. For certain laminate architectures, several modes must be computed to ascertain the lowest buckling mode, and once identified, provides an excellent approximation for the mode computed using the Rayleigh–Ritz method.