Abstract: Buckling of antisymmetric cross-ply laminated composite plates due to temperature changes is investigated in this paper. Displacement equations including the effect of transverse shear deformation are derived for determing critical buckling temperatures. Exact solutions for simply supported antisymmetric cross-ply laminates are obtained and the results are compared with the classical lamination theory and symmetric cross-ply laminates. Numerical results indicate that the transverse shear deformation and coupling have significant effect on the thermal buckling behaviour. The present theory predicts the thermal buckling more accurately when compared to the classical lamination theory.

Key words: laminated plate, thermal buckling, transverse shear deformation