Numerical studies on thin wall laminated composite panels under compressive loading

Abstract

Stability of plate is increased with increasing thickness of plate but a more economical solution can be obtained by keeping thickness of plate as small as possible and addition of stiffeners. The pre and post buckling analysis of stiffened panels have been carried out by finite element (FE) models. The laminated composite stiffened panel is subjected to a uniform compressive load in the direction of stiffeners with boundary condition of clamped in loaded edges and simply supported in unloaded edges. A database is obtained for hat-stiffened panel with variation of spacing of stiffeners, depth of stiffeners and changing the layup sequence of skin of the stiffened panel. The distribution of the critical buckling stresses of different panel has been estimated for three different layup sequences. On the basis of study, few important parameters of buckling behavior of the stiffened panel are identified and general guidelines are developed for better hat-stiffened panel. Also, the stiffened panel is analyzed for determination of effect of buckling stress with variation of aspect ratio of the panel. © IAEME Publication.