The results of analytical and numerical studies of the buckling behavior of laminated multilayered tensioned sheets with circular and elliptical openings are presented. The analysis shows the significant influence of stress concentration effects on buckling modes and loads, particularly taking into consideration variations in the E₁/E₂ and E₁/G12 ratios. The results of finite element (FE) computations prove that the buckling mode cannot be described by a single buckle localized at the apex of the hole. The optimal design of such structures seems to be much more complicated than classical buckling problems of compressed laminated panels without holes. However, the obtained results indicate that the optimal laminate configurations occur at the boundaries of the feasible regions of the introduced design space. Both continuous and discrete fibre orientations are considered. For continuous fibre orientations, the optimal stacking sequence corresponds to angle-ply symmetric laminates.
Keywords: buckling; composite laminated plates; continuous optimization; discrete optimization; elliptical cut-outs; finite element analysis; optimal design.