Vibration analysis of stiffened plates using Finite Element Method

This paper presents the vibration analysis of stiffened plates, using both conventional and super finite element methods. Mindlin plate and Timoshenko beam theories are utilized so as to formulate the plate and stiffeners, respectively. Eccentricity of the stiffeners is considered and they are not limited to be placed on nodal lines. Therefore, any configuration of plate and stiffeners can be modeled. Numerical examples are proposed to study the accuracy and convergence characteristics of the super elements. Effects of various parameters such as the boundary conditions of the plate, along with orientation, eccentricity, dimensions and number of the stiffeners on free vibration characteristics of stiffened panels are studied.