Reference: Abbott, Richard. Analysis and Design of Composite and Metallic Flight Vehicle Structures 3 Edition, 2019.

Once the basic integrity of the laminate to withstand the internal strains created by the external loads is established other forms of failure mode must be considered.

Panel buckling is a criterion that can be considered either as a critical failure mode or a change of state that allows residual strength beyond the onset of buckling.

A buckle forces a load redistribution and secondary in-plane and out-of-plane load effects. These secondary effects that occur at the time of buckling and the effect that they have on especially adhesively bonded structure can propagate wider structural failure.

For this reason, many composite aircraft projects consider local buckling to be an ultimate level failure and design for no buckling up to ultimate load.

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