Buckling Characteristics of Skin-Stringer Composite Stiffened Panel

Abstract

Skin-stringer structures are widely used in aircrafts due to their advantage of minimizing structural weight while maintaining load carrying capacity. However, buckling load can cause serious damage to these structures. Therefore, the buckling characteristics of skin-stringer structures should be carefully considered during the design phase to ensure structural soundness. In this study, finite element method was applied to predict the buckling characteristics of stiffened panels. In terms of the failure mode, finite element analysis showed a symmetrical buckling mode, whereas an asymmetrical mode was determined by experimentation. The numerical results were obtained and compared to the experimental data, showing a difference of 9.3% with regard to the buckling loads.