Buckling and free vibration analysis of laminated rectangular plates with uniform and non uniform distributed in-plane compressive loadings along two opposite edges is performed using the Ritz method. Classical laminated plate theory is adopted. The static component of the applied in- plane loading are assumed to vary according to uniform, parabolic or linear distributions. Initially, the plate membrane problem is solved using the Ritz method; subsequently, using Hamilton’s variational principle, linear homogeneous algebraic equations in terms of unknown are generated, the set of linear algebraic equations can be solved as an Eigen-value problem. Buckling loads for laminated plates with different combinations of boundary conditions are obtained and their effect on the natural frequencies of plate are also investigated. The proposed method is verified by comparing results to data obtained by the finite element method (FEM) using ANSYS program, from experimental program and that obtained by other researchers. Analytical results are also presented to bring out the effects of aspect ratio, boundary conditions, lamination angle, and loading type on the critical buckling load and natural frequency.
