Calculation of the collapse load of an axially compressed laminated composite stringer-stiffened curved panel–An engineering approach

The effective width method that is widely applied for the analysis of isotropic planar stringer-stiffened panels has been extended to laminated composite stringer-stiffened circular cylindrical panels. The approach was modified and adapted to handle curved composite structures. Panels stiffened by blade type stiffeners, J-form stiffeners and T-form stiffeners were considered in the present study. Bending buckling of the stiffeners, their torsional buckling, combined bending and torsion buckling and local buckling of the stringers were accounted for in the investigation. Using the proposed extended effective width method, a MATLAB based software code TEW1 was developed and implemented. To validate this code, predictions obtained by it were compared with experimental results and with finite element calculations. Good agreement between the present proposed method, experiments and finite element simulations was found, thus yielding an efficient, simple to apply and fast engineering code to be used in design and optimization stages.