Analysis of the Localized Buckling in Composite Plate Structures with Application to Determining the Strength of Corrugated Fiberboard

This study examines the theory for elastic buckling of composite structures composed of long rectangular flat plate elements. Elements can have nonlinear, orthotropic stress-strain properties characteristic of paper. Element stiffness coefficients add together to form a global structure stiffness matrix. Two methods of element counting and node labeling represent both determinant plate structures and periodic structures. Structure loading is in the axis direction of the plates. The solution gives the local buckling strain in the weakest structure element, which may differ from the weakest independent plate element. A nonlinear finite element method is developed with the finite elements being the plate elements of the structure. The small number of finite elements needed to characterize periodic structures makes the analysis efficient for searching out optimum designs. Corrugated fiberboard is one of the arbitrary structures appropriate for the analysis.