A two-piece mold was designed for fabrication of composite tubes. The quality of the (0) and (0/90/90/0) fabricated Glass/Epoxy composite tubes were studied and compared with the quality of composite tubes fabricated with conventional techniques. It was found that the present two-piece mold with vacuum application improved the quality of the composite tubes. Also, (0) and (0/90/90/0) composite plates were fabricated using a hot press cure technique.; Fixtures were designed to conduct thermal and mechanical load on these composites. The composite tubes and plates were subjected to uniform thermal loading with fixed boundary conditions. Both (0) and (0/90/90/0) composite plates buckled due to thermal loading; however, the composite tube with fixed ends showed bending behavior rather than buckling. The composite tubes with fixed ends were subjected to mechanical loading, and buckling was detected for both the (0) and (0/90/90/0) composite tubes.; A finite element program was developed based on shear deformation theory and compared with the experimental findings. The finite element results were in agreement with experimental findings for thermal buckling of the composite plates. The experimental and finite element results for mechanical buckling of composite tubes were also compared, and the results were within 12%.
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