Buckling analysis of thin wall stiffened composite panels

We present the pre and post buckling analysis of stiffened composite panels based on the finite element models. Individual buckling studies are conducted on the stiffened composite panel madeup of woven fabric CFC/epoxy, E-glass/epoxy and the Kevlar/epoxy composites. Straight, T shaped and I shaped stiffeners are considered to stiffen the panel. The panel is fabricated with 8 layers and the stiffeners are madeup of 16 layers, of equal thickness arranged in different orientations. The panel is subjected to a uniform axial compression load of 10 kN. The distribution of the buckling stresses and the buckling loads with different panel and stiffener combinations are estimated for three different layup sequences. The variation of the buckling stresses and the buckling loads from the numerical model are compared with the experiment. The results are in excellent agreement. (C) 2014 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.