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Composite Structures 83 (2008) 341353

www.elsevier.com/locate/compstruct

Calculation of the collapse load of an axially compressed laminated

composite stringer-stiened curved panelAn engineering approach
P. Pevzner, H. Abramovich *, T. Weller
Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Technion, IIT, 32000 Haifa, Israel
Available online 16 May 2007

Abstract
The eective width method that is widely applied for the analysis of isotropic planar stringer-stiened panels has been extended to
laminated composite stringer-stiened circular cylindrical panels. The approach was modied and adapted to handle curved composite
structures.
Panels stiened by blade type stieners, J-form stieners and T-form stieners were considered in the present study. Bending buckling
of the stieners, their torsional buckling, combined bending and torsion buckling and local buckling of the stringers were accounted for
in the investigation. Using the proposed extended eective 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 nite element calculations. Good agreement between the present proposed method, experiments and nite element simulations was found, thus yielding an
ecient, simple to apply and fast engineering code to be used in design and optimization stages.
 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Eective width; Collapse; Laminated composite curved panel; Stringer-stiened panel; Buckling load

1. Introduction
It is well recognized that relatively widely spaced stringer-stiened panels, when appropriately designed, can
withstand axial compression postbuckling loads that significantly exceed their rst between adjacent stringers skin
buckling load, before they collapse. Thus, stiened postbuckled panels constitute excellent, very suitable structural
elements in lightweight structures design. The particular
interest in, and demand of lightweight structures in aeronautical engineering, already in the thirties and the forties
of the previous century, motivated extensive theoretical
experimentally supplemented investigations (see [19]), that
focused on reliable determination of the ultimate postbuckling load capacity of at stiened panels (see detailed discussion and literature survey in Chapter 8 of [10]).

Corresponding author. Tel.: +972 4 8292303; fax: +972 4 8292030.

E-mail address: abramovich.haim@gmail.com (H. Abramovich).
Available upon request.

0263-8223/$ - see front matter  2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.compstruct.2007.05.001

The postbuckling behavior and stress/strain distribution

of stiened panels is complex and non-linear. Complicated
non-linear numerical calculation methods that employ signicant computational resources are laborious and are
required to condently predict the panels ultimate load
capacity. To alleviate the calculations, a relatively simplied
model, the eective width approach, has been proposed
by von Karman et al. [1] and subsequently modied by
Sechler, Cox, Marguerre and other investigators [29]. This
approach has provided a good average approximation for
calculation of the eective width, we, i.e. the portion of
the between adjacent stringers buckled skin, that together
with the stringer constitute the integral skin-stringer combination that participates in load carrying in postbuckling.
Based on the average stress rst experienced by the stringers
and the rst critical skin stress, rcr between adjacent
stringers of spacing b, the following relation has been proposed by Marguerre for determination of we
r
we 1 3 scr

2 sst
b

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P. Pevzner et al. / Composite Structures 83 (2008) 341353

The above eective width concept is widely and eectively applied as an adequate reliable tool for prediction
of ultimate loads of metal at stiened panels. When
appropriately modied and adapted it might lend itself as
an appropriate approach for determination of ultimate
load capacities of axially compressed laminated composite
stringer-stiened curved panels as well.
In light of the above discussion, the present study undertook to adopt the eective width concept to treat the
postbuckling capacity of composite stringer-stiened
curved panels. The results are compared with complementary experimental results and F.E. calculations to examine
the applicability of the concept in the present investigation.
2. First buckling of a stiened panel
The panel skin buckling between adjacent stringers in
panels stiened by relatively widely spaced adequately sti
stringer stieners is usually their lowest buckling load, consequently referred to as the rst buckling. Calculation of
this buckling load was carried out by either one of two different approaches, use of semi empirical formulae [2], or
deriving an approximate analytical solution. Adaptation
of empirical formulae for composite panels with stieners
ange of variable thickness is presented in Appendix A.
In the approximate solution, the panel between adjacent
stieners was treated as a curved panel, simply-supported
in the longitudinal direction along the center line of the
stringers web and clamped in the circumferential direction
along its loaded edges. Based on this assumption and
employing Donnells equations [13], the buckling load of
the curved laminated composite panel can be evaluated
(see Appendix B).

Fig. 2. Cross-section of an equivalent stiener-skin combination.

stress has to be determined. This in turn requires the evaluation of the exural and torsional rigidities of the equivalent stringer conguration of Fig. 2, which is presented in
Appendix C.
3.1. Torsion and bending equations of motion
Lets consider the stringer of the equivalent column in
Fig. 3 and assume that it rotates around point O of
Fig. 3, which can move in Z direction only. Therefore,
the deection in Z direction of any element b of the
cross-section, that is of either the web or table of the stiener is given by
wb w x/

where w is the deection in the Z direction of point O and /

is the angle of rotation around point O, which is measured

3. Calculation of the ultimate compression load

Following the eective width approach, calculation of
the ultimate load of the stringer-stiened curved panel
shown in Fig. 1 is replaced by calculation of the critical
load of a column with an equivalent cross-section given
in Fig. 2 and of length equal to that of the panel under consideration. The equivalent cross-section is composed of the
actual stringer cross-section and an eective strip of skin of
width we, that participates in carrying the postbuckling
load and which is determined in the calculation process.
To dene the column load, the average critical column

Fig. 1. Test panel model.

Fig. 3. Rotation of the stiener.

P. Pevzner et al. / Composite Structures 83 (2008) 341353

343

counter clockwise. Since point O is xed in the X direction,

the deection of element b in X direction is
U b /z

The forces per unit length in the Y direction, that are acting
on the slightly deected element b, in the Z and X directions, are
dF z r dAw x/00 dy

00

dF x r dAz/ dy

where dA is the area of element b.

The moment per unit length of the forces dFz and dFx,
relatively to point O, is
00

myy dy x dF z  z dF x r dAfxw x/  z2 /00 g dy

Integrating of the unit length moment (4) over the crosssection areas of the web and table yields the stiener torque
per unit length
Z
0
M
mzz
A
0
0
11
5
Z
B Z
BZ
CC
B 0
CC
00 B
rBw
x dA / B x2 dA z2 dACC
@
@ A
AA
A
A
|{z}
|{z} |{z}
I zz

Sx

I xx

where the average stress is r P =KA. Here, P is the

compression force acting on the stringer (positive in compression), A is the area of the web and table and K is a coefcient reecting the twist of only the web and table of the
stringer, which is given by
K

b flange
up
A11
b1 bdop Aweb
11 A bA11

flange

2we Askin
11

b flange
A11
b1 bdop Aweb
11 A

Fig. 4. Shear center of the stiener.

By applying the well known moment - curvature relation of

2
the beam axis, M EI ddyw2 in the present coordinate system,
the second equation of motion becomes:
 2 
d3 w
dw
10
EI 2 P w  X 0 / EI
dy
dy 2 y0
The exural rigidity (EI) of the equivalent composite stiener of Fig. 2 is derived in Appendix C (see Eqs. (C.1)
(C.16).
3.2. Calculation of the column (Fig. 2) critical load, (P cr )
and the eective width, we of the panel

Eq. (5) can be rewritten now as

P
w0 S x /0 I zz I xx
M
KA
0

Equating Eq. (7) to Eq. (C.23) (from Appendix C), the rst
equation of motion due to torsion becomes
P
w00 S x /00 I zz I xx 0
GI/00  Ab11 flange C w / 
KA
0000

A second equation of motion is found by considering the

bending of the stringer of Fig. 2.
During bending, the cross-section undergoes translation
and rotation. The translation is dened by the deection w
in Z direction of the shear center in Fig. 4.
The position of the shear center is found from Eq. (D.3)
of Appendix D.
The cross-section rotates about the shear center by a relatively small angle / and translates by a deection w.
Therefore, the total displacement is (w  X 0 /) and the
bending moment acting on the stringer in a plane perpendicular to the skin is given by
M P w  X 0 f M y0

Combining Eq. (8) with Eq. (10) yields the following set
of equations:
8 
 0


0000
b flange
P
< w00 S x KA
 GI A11
Cw/ 0
/00 PI
KA
2
11
2
: EI ddyw2 P w  X 0 /  EI ddyw2
0
y0

The boundary conditions of the equivalent column are

w / w0 /0 0Y 0; L

12

The following functions comply with these boundary

conditions:
(

 
w C 1 1  cos 2py
l
13

2py

/ C 2 1  cos l
Substitution of (13) into (11) yields the following system of
equations:
8

 h
 2 i
b flange
P
0
>
>
C 1 S x KA
cos 2py
C 2 PI
 GI  A11
C w 2p
0
>
1
KA
l
<
2p2 
2py 


2py 
)
EIX 1 1 cos 1  1 PC 1 1  cos 1
>
>




>
: PX C 1  cos 2py 0
0 2
1

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P. Pevzner et al. / Composite Structures 83 (2008) 341353

and after simplication

8

2p2
b flange
P
>
0
< C 1 S x KA
C 2 PI

GI

A
C
0
w
11
1
KA




2
>
: C 1 P  EI 2p
 C 2 PX 0 0
1
Introducing the following notations:
8
 

< P / 2p 2 Ab flange C w GI KA
11
l
I0
2p2
:
P b l EI

When all of the roots, P 1 . . . P 3 of Eqs. (17) and (18) are

found, the value of Pcr can be determined as
14

15

16

C 1 P  P b  C 2 x0 P 0

System (16) has non-trivial solutions for C 1 and C 2 if and

only if its determinant equals to zero. Therefore, the equation for determination of the column buckling load
becomes
x0 S x P 2 P  P / I 0 P  P b 0

17

This equation has two real solutions P 1 and P 2 .

Additionally, there is a possibility that parts of the
ange (either b1  tweb
, or bdop tweb
, Fig. 4) will buckle
2
2
due to torsion, before comprehensive buckling of the column occurs. To nd the buckling load P 3 corresponding
to these parts of the ange alone, the following equation
of torsional buckling was applied2
P3
GI1  K 1  A1
I0 0 ) P 3
K 1 A1 1
I 01

18

Let us assume that b1  tweb

> bdop tweb
(Fig. 4). Therefore,
2
2
tweb
ange part b1  2 buckles in torsion rst. Then, GI1 in
Eq. (18) is the torsion rigidity of this ange part alone, given by

1
tweb 2
GI1 Ab66 flange b1 
19
t
3
2 b flange
Note that in Eq. (18) I 01 is the polar moment of inertia of
the tables part of the cross-section. In this case it equals to

1
tweb 3
I 01 tb flange b1 
20
3
2
A1 is the area of the table part,

tweb
A1 tb flange  b1 
21
2
and K 1 is the coecient that takes into account that in the
present case only part of the table of the stiener can twist
K1

b flange
up
A11
b1 bdop Aweb
11 A bA11


Ab11 flange b1  tweb
2

flange

23

The average critical column stress, rco , can be given then

as
rco

and substituting of (15) into (14) we get

C 1 S x P C 2 I 0 P  P / 0

GI1 

P cr min fP 1 ; P 2 ; P 3 g

2we Askin
11
22

2
This equation is derived from the rst equation of Eq. (11) for the cases
when the column is only a plane. In this case the shear center and the
centroid coincides, i.e. S x 0 and the warping rigidity vanishes too,
C w 0.

P cr
Area
P cr
b1 bdop tb flange Atweb btup

flange

2we tskin

24

where we is the eective width of the panel that is determined by an iterative process as will be next discussed.
To begin the determination of the eective width, we of a
curved stringer stiened panel, the Marquerre formula
([11,12], Eq. (25)) is applied, while in the rst iteration it
is assumed that we 0
r
1 rcrf
we bpanel  3
25
2 rco
Here, the critical buckling stress, rcrf , of a at composite
panel, of width and laminate construction equal to those
of the real composite cylindrical panel is calculated (see
[11]). The boundary conditions of this at panel are taken
as CCSS (clamped at the bottom and at the top and simply-supported along its sides). Consequently, a rst iteration eective width is determined. Introducing this
eective width into Eq. (24) and employing Eq. (25) a
new eective width is obtained.
The process is repeated until we obtained by Eq. (25)
leads to convergence of Eq. (24). It has been found that this
process had to be repeated 35 times until the value of Pcr
converged.
3.3. Calculation of the panel critical load
Repeating the process as is described above, the nal
values of we ; rco and Pcr are obtained.
At rst, the column stress, rco of the stringer with an
attached strip of the panel skin has to be compared with
the buckling stress of the panel skin between stringers,
rcrp (see Appendices A and B and Eqs. (A.5), (B.10)).
In case that rco < rcrp buckling does not occur between
adjacent stringers rst, but includes a stiener as well
(see Fig. 5a). For this case, the stiness bending matrix
[D] of the combined skin and stringers has to be recalculated and the critical load Ncr can be found following
Appendix B.
In case that rco < rcrp (see Fig. 5b) the ultimate load
P crpanel of a panel with n stringers consists of n equivalent
columns (stieners + eective skin) critical loads Pcr,
plus n  1 critical loads of the panels of width
(b  2we ) between stringers, plus two loads on the sides
of the panel. The stresses on the panels of width
(b  2we ), between stringers, can be found according to

P. Pevzner et al. / Composite Structures 83 (2008) 341353

345

Fig. 5. (a) Case sco < scrp : Buckling test of a panel with T type stringers having a height of 15 mm and (b) case sco > scrp : Buckling test of a panel with T
type stringers having a height of 20 mm.

Appendices A and B. As an example, using the empirical

formula from Appendix A and Ref. [11] the following
equation will be obtained:

rcrc

  1:6
 t 1:3 
2
Dskin
t
11  1  m12  12

9
0:16
R
L
h3skin

26

Summing up the above load contributions, the nal formula for the panel critical load becomes
P crpanel nP cr n  1bpanel  2we rcrc tskin
2we rco tskin

27

4. Results and discussion

To validate the proposed method, panels of dierent
geometries, skin lay-ups and stringer constructions, were
examined by comparing the results that were predicted by
the present proposed method with experimental observations and F.E calculations. The comparison is given in
Table 1. The data used for load calculations, as presented
in Table 1 can be found in Appendix E, where the data
for case I, case II and case II appears in Tables E.1 and
E.2 presents the data for case IV and case V.
It is apparent from Table 1 that higher predictions of the
collapse load than the experimental ones were observed for
panels with heavier stieners (cases I, III and V). In cases
II and IV, where the panels were stiened by lighter stieners, the panels withstood higher collapse loads than
those yielded by the present proposed method. Similar
results, except in case I, were also found in comparing
the test results with the supposedly more accurate F.E.
predictions.
In comparing the predictions of the collapse loads
obtained by the present proposed method with the F.E.
predictions, it is seen than in cases I and V the proposed
method yielded higher loads than the F.E. ones, whereas
the opposite is found for the cases II, III and IV. Also,

in the later cases the correlations with F.E. is very good,

less than 6%. The correlation in case V is also good, less
than 8%, whereas the highest discrepancy, about 10%,
appears in case I. In spite of those quoted discrepancies,
it may be concluded that the present method is an adequate fast tool for prediction of the ultimate load capacity
of a postbuckled curved laminated composite stringer-stiened panel in the design process, as well as in their
optimization.
Concerning the local rst buckling of the skin
between the stringers it is found from Table 1 that the
approximate analytical proposed formula yielded lower
skin buckling loads than in the tests in cases IIII, and
higher ones in cases IV and V. Similar results, except for
case IV, can be seen in Table 1 when comparing the
semi-empirical proposed formula with the experimental
results. It is apparent from Table 1 that the approximate
analytical solution results were always higher than the
semi-empirical ones, as well as the F.E. predictions. Furthermore, very good correlation is observed in Table 1
between the F.E. and semi-empirical predictions in cases
IIII, whereas the two signicantly deviate from one
another in cases IV and V.
It should be noted that experimental denition of the
rst skin buckling is associated with the appearance of
a rst buckle somewhere on the skin between adjacent stieners. The appearance of such a buckle does not necessary
comply with the calculated rst skin buckling pattern
between the stringers. This rst buckling may be significantly aected by the assumed nominal boundary conditions, particularly along the stringers. It is observed in
Table 1 that cases IIII were associated with a relatively
small scatter in test results. When comparing the average
of these test results with calculations it is found that there
is good to very good correlation with the proposed approximate analytical solution, less than 7% dierence in case I,
4% in case II and less than 11% in case III. The scatter in
the test results in cases IV and V is very high and no denitive conclusion is obtained in comparing even the average

346

P. Pevzner et al. / Composite Structures 83 (2008) 341353

Table 1
Experimental and calculated local buckling force, Pbuckling, and total collapse force, Pcollapse, for dierent types of panels
Pbuckling (kN)
Experiment

Case I: Panel with 5 T-type stringers,

20 mm web height

Case II: Panel with 5 T-type stringers,

15 mm web height
Case III: Panel with 6 T-type stringers
20 mm web height
Case IV: Panel with 5 J-form thin stringers
Case V: Panel with 4 J-form thick stringers

137.3
147.2
158.5
133.4
110.9
123.6
224.2
237.3
234.5
83.4
70.6
59.8
90.8

Pcollapse (kN)
F.E.
method

Proposed method
Semi-empirical
formula

Approx. analytical
solution

122

123.5

137.6

115

114.4

127.4

180

171.7

207.2

95

80.4

100.8

75

111.2

119.3

of the test results with either of the approaches for calculating the rst local buckling load. In spite of these
observations it does not appear that they had any consistent signicant eect on the calculations of the collapse
load of the panels, neither by employing the F.E. method
nor by use of the present proposed method. Therefore, this
further emphasizes the conclusion that the method proposed inhere for determination of the ultimate load carrying capacity of laminated composite stringer-stiened

Experiment

F.E.
method

Proposed
method

208.7
222.7
224.8
158.9
153.3
147.2
274.7
264.9
274.7
230.5
226.1
289.8
293.0

204

240.5

135

127.4

290

281.7

215

202.6

330

354.9

curved panels can be satisfactory employed as a fast tool

for this purpose.
To carry out the computations a computer code TEW
with a user-friendly interface was developed. This alphaversion of the code is working in a MATLAB environment.
The code enables fast modeling (seconds) of the geometry of
a panel and its stringers, composite material properties of a
layer of this panel and a layers construction yielding the rst
buckling (of the panel skin) and the collapse bucking of the

Fig. 6. Welcome page of the TEW code.

P. Pevzner et al. / Composite Structures 83 (2008) 341353

347

Fig. 7. Panel geometry data interface.

Fig. 8. Dialog page that collects all the data together.

whole panel. During the interactive session, the user has the
possibility to vary any parameter in the dialog regime and
to immediately receive the updated new values of buckling.
Using the present code one can optimize a panel under

given constraints, with the last version of this optimized

panel has been run with a more accurate code (probably
FE code). Figs. 69 show some of the main printout pages
of the code TEW.

348

P. Pevzner et al. / Composite Structures 83 (2008) 341353

Fig. 9. Result interface of the TEW code.

5. Conclusions
The eective width approach was extended for prediction of the collapse load of composite stringer-stiened
circular cylindrical panels.
Torsional buckling and combined bending and torsion
buckling of the stringers were included.
Predictions were compared with test results, as well as
with nite element predictions: (a) Validity and adequacy
of the proposed method was found to be stiener dependent, higher ultimate loads than the experimentally
observed ones were obtained in the case of heavy stiening, whereas lower ones were predicted for relatively
light stiening. (b) Good correlation with nite elements calculations was found. Yet, the proposed analysis
yielded higher ultimate load predictions than F.E. ones in
the case of heavy stiening and lower ones than those
yielded by F.E. for the relatively light stiening, however with less discrepancy between the two calculation
methods.
Hence, like in the more accurate F.E. calculations the predictions obtained by the present proposed method do not
provide denite bounds, higher or lower, to the panel ultimate load capacity. Nevertheless, the present method provides an adequate and ecient analysis tool that is much
desired in the design and optimization stages.
Acknowledgements
This work was partly supported by the European Commission, Competitive and Sustainable Growth Program,

Contract No. G4RD-CT-1999-00103, project POSICOSS

(http://www.posicoss.de). The information in this paper is
provided as is and no guarantee or warranty is given that
the information is t for any particular purpose. The user
thereof uses the information at its sole risk and liability.
The authors would like to acknowledge the outstanding
experimental work performed by Mr. A. Grunwald and his
exceptional assistance in setting the tests and dedicated
assistance in performing them and the assistance of Mrs.
R. Yae in the monitoring and the data reduction of the
test results.

Appendix A
A.1. Empirical formulae for the rst buckling of the skin
of a curved laminated composite panel
Existing empirical formulae for denition of buckling of a
constant thickness circular cylinder curved plate under axial
compression apply to isotropic materials only (see for example [12]). To extend their application to composite stringerstiened panels these empirical formulae have to be adapted
to handle composite materials and variation in panel skin
thickness due to presence of anges of the stieners.
First, equivalent thickness of the panel between adjacent
stringers and equivalent Youngs modules has to be
dened. Assuming the thickness of the panel to be equal
to the equivalent thickness, and using average bending stiness, an expression for the equivalent Youngs modulus is
given by

P. Pevzner et al. / Composite Structures 83 (2008) 341353

Eequivalent

12  Daverage
 1  m212
11
3
hequivalent

A:1

rcr

Eequivalent

9
c


1:6

1:3
hequivalent
hequivalent
0:16
R
L

A:2

For a laminated composite simply-supported plate the

buckling force per unit length N xcr is given by the following
expression (see [10,13 and 17]):

a 2 D a 4 
p2
22
N xcr 2 m2  D11 2H 
2 
A:3
b
b
a
m
where a is the length of the panel (a = L), b is its width and
H D12 2D66 .
Therefore, the buckling stress ratio of a simply-supported at plate will be


rcr
N xcr

A:4
Eequivalent f Eequivalent  hequivalent
An empirical formula for buckling of an isotropic cylindrical panel between two adjacent stieners was suggested by
Redshaw (see [12]). Using the previous two formulae (A.2)
and (A.4) an adaptation to this approach to laminated
composite materials yields
s



2

2
rcr
rcr
1
rcr

Eequivalent p
Eequivalent c 4 Eequivalent f


1
rcr

2 Eequivalent f
where


rcr
Eequivalent

Appendix B
B.1. Approximate analytical formula

Using this equivalent Youngs modulus, the compressive

buckling stress and subsequently the compressive buckling
load can be found.
In 1939 Kanemitsu and Nojima (see [12]) suggested an
empirical formula to calculate the compressive buckling
stress of a thin-walled isotropic cylinder. The formula satisfactorily agreed with experimental results within the
ranges 500 6 R=hequivalent 6 3000 and 0:10 6 L=R 6 2:5.
Using the equivalent thickness and equivalent Youngs
modulus, this formula can be rewritten for a laminated
composite material as


349

A:5

is the buckling stress ratio of a laminated

composite

cylindrical panel between two adjacent stringers,
rcr
is the buckling stress ratio of the complete
Eequivalent
c

composite cylinder with L, R and hequivalent equal to that

of the cylindrical panel and


rcr
is the buckling stress ratio of a laminated
Eequivalent
f

composite at plate with the same L, b and hequivalent of

the laminated composite cylindrical panel between two
adjacent stieners.

The buckling analysis formulation for cylindrical composite panels can be found in ([1417]). Herein an example
is shown how to analytically nd the buckling load of a
cylindrical composite panel under longitudinal compression. For this type of a problem the boundary conditions
in the longitudinal direction are of less importance, and
are assumed to be simply-supported, while the boundary
conditions in the circumferential direction were taken as
clamped.
The Donnells simplied equations for a composite
cylindrical panel were used [13], namely
the equilibrium equation:
2D12 2D66
D22
1
w0;YY hh 4 w0;hhhh N h
r2
r
r

D11 w0;yyyy
N y w0;yy

B:1

and the compatibility equation:

a22 v;yyyy

2a12 a33
a11
1
v;yyhh 4 v;hhhh  w0;yy 0
2
r
r
r

B:2

From these formulae (B.1) and (B.2) the following equation can be derived:

D11 w0;yyyy


2D12 2D66
D22
w0;yyhh 4 w0;hhhh
r2
r

A
w0 y; h N ycconst w0;xx
r

B:3

where A is given by
A

a22

mp4
l

 
1 mp 2
r l
 2 1p2
2a12 a33 mp
l
b

a11

1p4

B:4

To fulll the simply-supported boundary condition in the

longitudinal direction the function w0 can be taken in the
form
mpy
wx; h H sin
B:5
l
where m is a natural number m 1; 2; 3 . . . and H is function of h.
With this assumption Eq. (B.3) can be rewritten as
mp 2
 2H
Y 00
l

mp 2 
mp 4
A mp 2
Y
D11 
Nx
0
l
r l
l

D22 Y

0000

B:6

where Y F y; y hr
The corresponding characteristic equation is given by

350

P. Pevzner et al. / Composite Structures 83 (2008) 341353

mp 2
D22 k4  2H
k2
1

mp 2 
mp 4
A mp 2

D11 
Nx
0
1
r 1
1

acting on the stringer cross-section, beneath and above the

neutral axis vanishes, namely
F below F above 0

It has two imaginary and two real roots, namely

s
 2 p
2H mp
D
np
1
i ;
k1;2 i
b
2D22
s
mp2 p
2H 1 D
k3;4 
B:7
2D22
h 
 2
 2
 2 i
4
where D 4H 2 mp
 4D22 mp
D11  Ar mp
N x mp
1
1
1
1
and n is a real number (not necessarily a natural number).
The general solution of Eq. (B.6) can be represented as
A1
Y
Ek3 y A2 Ek3 y A3 sink1 y
Ek3 b
A4 cosk1 y

B:8

It is important to note that in Eq. (B.8) both k1 and k3 are

functions of N x and of a natural number m only.
Clamped boundary conditions in y-direction are taken
as

dY
Y jy0;b
0
B:9
dy

where Fbelow is the force acting below the neutral axis (see
Fig. 2) and Fabove is the force above the neutral axis.
Assuming that due to applying a pure bending moment
on the stringer it undergoes a bending exure with a radius
q, Fbelow and Fabove can be found as following: The force
that acts on the part of the web that is below the neutral
line F web
below is (see Fig. 2)
F web
below

nweb Z
X
i1

Ek3 b

As it was stressed above there are only two variables in Eq.

(B.10). They are force per unit length N x and wave number
m (a natural number). Solving (B.10) for dierent natural
numbers, m 1 . . . N , the minimum value of N x and successively the buckling force Pbuckl is found.
Appendix C
C.1. Flexural and torsional rigidities of a stringer
Evaluation of the exural rigidity of a stringer is based
on the EulerBernoulli assumptions.
C.1.1. The stringer neutral axis
To calculate the exural rigidity of a stringer cross-section, depicted in Fig. 2, the location of the neutral axis
has to be determined.
Location of this neutral line will be evaluated from the
condition that when a stringer is acted by a pure bending
moment, the sum of the forces in the longitudinal direction

a1
0

24
X
z
h
c11
C 11 hi dz
q
q
i1

a1

z dz
0

nweb
hX
a2 Aweb a2
C 11 1 11 1
q i1
2
q 2

C:2

where the number of layers in the stringers web is

nweb ; hi h is the layer thickness (it is supposed that all layers have the same thickness) and Aweb
is the membrane
11
rigidity of the web in the longitudinal direction. Similarly,
the force that acts on the part of the web that is above the
neutral axis F web
below (see Fig. 2) is
2

F web
above 

y0;b

Introducing these boundary conditions (Eq. (B.9), the condition of existence of a non-trivial solution of Eq. (B.8)
yields

1


1
0
1

Ek3 b

k3


k
k
0
3
1

Ek3 b
B:10
0

1

1
sink
b
cosk
b
1
1
Ek3 b




k3
k3
k1 cosk1 b  k1 sink1 b

C:1

Aweb
11 A  a1
q
2

C:3

The force acting on the stiener bottom ange is

n flange Z hi 
1 bX
tb flange
z a1
bdop b1  C 11i dz
q i1 hi1
2
n flange Z hi
bdop b1 bX
C 11i dz

q
hi1
i1
!
n flange Z hi

tb flange bX
a1
C 11i dz
2
hi1
i1
bdop b1  b flange 
tb flange b flange
B11

a1
C:4
 A11
q
2

flange
F bbelow

Analogically, the forces acting on the stringer top ange

(see Fig. 2) and on the part of the skin 2we are found to be
b  up flange 
tup flange up flange
up flange
 B11
A  a1
F above
 A11
q
2
C:5




2w
t
e
skin
Bskin
F skin
 Askin
above
11 A  a1 t up flange
11
q
2
C:6
Combining Eqs. (C.1)(C.6), the following equation is
obtained:
flange
web
F below F above F bbelow
F web
below F above
up flange
F above
F skin
above 0

C:7

From this equality, the distance a1 to the neutral axis is

found

P. Pevzner et al. / Composite Structures 83 (2008) 341353

#
b flange b flange
h
2
Aweb
A11
t
b flange
11 A
bdop b1 B11
a1

2
2
"
#
up flange
A11
2A tup flange
up flange
b B11

2
h

tskin i.
skin
A tup flange
2we Bskin
11 A11
2
b flange
up flange
web
bA11
2we Askin
A11 A bdop b1 A11
11
C:8
Again, it should be noted that at the beginning of the process, the value of we is unknown. Therefore, in the beginning it is assumed to be equal to zero and its value is
obtained by an iteration process.
C.1.2. Stringer exural rigidity (EI)
When a pure bending moment is acting on a section of a
stringer, the following equation has to be fullled:
M M below M above

C:9

where Mbelow is moment below the neutral axis (Fig. 2) and

Mabove is the moment above this axis.
Applying the same assumptions as in the previous subsection, we get
nweb Z a1
nweb Z a1
X
X
z2
M web

r
zh
dz

C 11i h dz
11i
below
q
0
0
i1
i1
Z
n
n
a
web
web
1
X
X
C 11i h
C 11i h a31 Aweb
a3
11 1

z2 dz
q
q
3
q 3
0
i1
i1
C:10
Similarly
M web
below

Aweb
11 A  a1
3
q

C:11

The bending moment, which is applied to the top ange

(see Fig. 2) of the stringer, is
flange Z
X

nup
up flange
M below

i1

i1

br11 z a2 dz

hi1

flange Z
X

nup

hi

hi

C 11i

hi1

z a2
b dz
q

Z hi
flange
b X

C 11i
z2 2a2 z a22 dz
q i1
hi1
nup

b up
D11
q

flange

up flange
2a2 B11

up flange
a22 A11


C:12

up flange

where a2 A  a1 t 2 is the distance from the neutral

axis to middle line of the ange.
The moment applied to the eective skin 2we is
M skin
above

2we skin
2 skin
D11 2a3 Bskin
11 a3 A11 
q

C:13

351
skin

where a3 A  a1 tup flange t 2 is the distance from the

neutral axis to the middle line of the skin.
The moment applied to the bottom ange (b flange from
Fig. 2) of the stringer is
bdop b1 b flange
flange
D11
M bbelow

2a4 Bb11 flange a24 Askin

11 
q
C:14
b flange
where a4 a1 t 2 is the distance from the neutral axis
to the middle line of the bottom ange.
The moment that is applied to the cross-section of the
stringer consists of the moments applied to all of its parts
is given by
flange
web
web
skin
M M below M above M table
below M below M above M above M above
"
#
Aweb
11
1
a31 A  a1 3 bDflange
2a2 Bflange
a22 Aflange

11
11
11
3
q 2we Dskin 2a3 Bskin a2 Askin  bdop b1 Dtable 2a4 Btable a2 Atable 
3 11
4 11
11
11
11
11
|
{z
}
EI

C:15

Finally, the bending rigidity EI can be written as

Aweb
3
EI 11 a31 A  a1
3
up flange
up flange
up flange
bD11
2a2 B11
a22 A11

skin
2 skin
2we Dskin
11 2a3 B11 a3 A11 
b flange
b flange
b flange
bdop b1 D11
2a4 B11
a24 A11

C:16

C.2. Stringer torsional rigidity

When calculating the exural rigidity it was assumed
that a stringer would buckle by bending in a plane perpendicular to the panel skin. However, there are cases in which
the stringer will buckle either by twisting or by a combination of bending and twisting, or buckling will occur along
some part of the stiener only.
In the present work it is assumed that only the web and
the bottom ange (the free one, which is not attached to the
skin) can twist. If a M t torque is applied to the stringer, this
torque will be partially balanced by the shear stresses due
to pure torsion (M t1 ) and partially by the resistance of
the stringer bottom ange (see Fig. 1) to lateral bending
(M t1 ) due to a moment in Z direction [18].
The torsion part is found by the following formula for
an open cross-section thin-walled bar [18]
M t1 GI/0
C:17
where in our case the torsional rigidity of a composite stiener GI is equal to
n
1X
GI
Ai mi h2i
3 i 66
1
1 b flange
Aweb
 A  t2web A66
b1 bdop t2b flange
C:18
3 66
3
In cases where the thicknesses of the stringer web and bottom ange are not small, coecients that slightly dier
from 13 should be used (see [19,20]).

352

P. Pevzner et al. / Composite Structures 83 (2008) 341353

The resistance to lateral bending is calculated as following (Fig. 3): The stringer rotates with respect to point 0.
Since the angle of rotation / is small, the lateral deection
of the bottom ange (parts b1 and bdop) is
C:19

u /ah
t

skin
where ah is taken as ah A b flange
top flange
2
2
It is assumed that the bottom ange bends so that the
line of connection of the ange to the web constitutes a
neutral axis. Therefore, the moment applied to the ange
part b1 is
tweb
Z
tweb
d2 u b1  2 b flange
d2 /
warp
b flange b1  2
ah 2
M b1 2
A11
zz dz A11
dy 0
dz
3

Similarly, the moment applied to the bottom ange part

bdop is
3

M warp
bdop

Atable
11

bdop tweb

d2 /
2
ah 2
dz
3

of a stiener plus an attached eective skin of length 2we

(Fig. 4) is bent by a moment M, the tension resultant that
is acting on the bottom ange is given by
N

M
b flange
a11 A11
EI
t

and EI are given by Eq. (C.16).

where a11 a1 b flange
2
Therefore, a tension force F is acting on a piece of the bottom ange of length x is (Fig. 4)
F Nx

warp
M warp M warp
bdop M b1


1 b flange
tweb 3 
tweb 3 d2 /
A11
ah bdop
b1 
3
dy 2
2
2

M
b flange
a11 A11
x
EI

dF

b flange
dF
dM a11 A11
dy
x dy
dy
dy
EI

a11 Ab11 flange

x dy
EI

syx tb

b flange
a11 A11
x dy ) syx tb
EI
b flange
a11 A11
x
V
EI

flange dy V

The shearing force in the bottom ange is therefore

dM warp
dz


1
tweb 3 
tweb 3 d3 /
Atable
a
b

b

h
dop
1
3 11
dz3
2
2

M t2 V warp  ah



tweb 3 
tweb 3
d3 /
b flange 1 2
ah bdop
A11
b1 
 3
3
dy
2
2
|{z}
Cw

b flange
A11
C w /00

C:22

Finally, the total resistance to the applied moment becomes

b flange
M t M t1 M t2 GI/0  A11
C w /000

C:23

Appendix D
D.1. Shear center of the stieners cross-section
The location of the shear center for an isotropic beam is
described in many text books, e.g. [20,21]. Here, an attempt
is made to locate the shear center of a composite stringer
that is assumed to bend in a direction perpendicular to
the skin of the panel only. When the column consisting

flange

D:4

Therefore, at a distance x from the ange side the same

shear stress sxy acts parallel to the x axis (Fig. 4). Hence,
the shear force acting in the ange part b1 of the stiener
cross-section is

C:21
The moment of resistance to lateral bending equals to the
moment of this shear force with respect to point O and
has the following form:

D:3

where V dM
is the vertical shear force acting on the beam.
dy
This change is balanced by a shear force acting in the
ange along the Y axis on the element dy at distance x from
the ange free side (Fig. 4). Therefore

C:20

V warp

D:2

The change of this force along the longitudinal y axis is given by

and the lateral bending moment equals

D:1

T b1

b1  web
2

sxy tb

flange dx

b1  web
2

b flange
a11 A11
x dx
EI
0

2
a11 Ab11 flange b1  tweb
2
V
EI
2

D:5

Analogically, the shear force acting in the ange part bdop

of the stiener cross-section (Fig. 4) is

2
b flange
bdop tweb
a11 A11
2
D:6
T bdop V
EI
2
It is assumed that the shearing force V in z direction
(Fig. 4) is resisted by the web alone.
Then, the moment that is produced by the above two
shear forces relatively to the point 0, is given by
M shear T b1 T bdop ah

b flange 
a11 A11
tweb 2 
tweb 2
b1 
Vah
 bdop
2EI
2
2
D:7

P. Pevzner et al. / Composite Structures 83 (2008) 341353

Table E.1
Data used for load calculations of panels PSC-1PSC-9

M shear
V


a11 Ab11 flange 
tweb 2 
tweb 2
b1 
 b1
ah
2EI
2
2

353

X0

Properties

PSC-1, PSC-2,
PSC-4

PSC-3, PSC-5,
PSC-6

PSC-7, PSC-8,
PSC-9

Total panel length

(mm)
Free panel length
(mm)
Radius (mm)
Arc length (mm)
No. of stringers
Stringer distance
(mm)
Laminate lay-up of
skin
Laminate lay-up of
stringer
Ply thickness (mm)
Type of stringer
Stringer height (mm)
Stringer feet width
(mm)
E11 N=mm2
E22 N=mm2
G12 N=mm2
m12

720

720

720

660

660

660

Appendix E

938
680
5
136

938
680
5
136

938
680
6
113

In the following tables the data of the panels presented

in Table 1 are given See Tables E.1, E.2.

[0, 45, 90]s

[0, 45, 90]s

[0, 45, 90]s

[45, 02]3s

[45, 02]3s

[45, 02]3s

0.125
Blade
20
60

0.125
Blade
15
60

0.125
Blade
20
60

1,47,300
11,800
6000
0.3

1,47,300
11,800
6000
0.3

1,47,300
11,800
6000
0.3

Table E.2
Data used for load calculations of panels AXIAL1AXIAL4
Stringer type
Short ange J

Long ange J

Specimens

AXIAL1, AXIAL2

AXIAL3, AXIAL4

Total panel length (mm)

Free panel length (mm)
Radius (mm)
Arc length (mm)
No. of stringers
Stringer distance (mm)
Laminate lay-up of skin
Laminate lay-up of stringer
Ply thickness (mm)
Type of stringer
Stringer height (mm)
Stringer feet width (mm)
Stringer ange width (mm)
E11 (N/mm2)
E22 [N/mm2)
G12 (N/mm2)
m12

720
660
938
680
5
136
[0, 45, 90]s
[ 45, 0]3s
0.125
J
20.5
60
10
1,47,300
11,800
6000
0.3

720
660
938
680
4
174
[0, 45, 90]s
[ 45, 02]3s
0.125
J
20.5
60
20
1,47,300
11,800
6000
0.3

skin
where ah A b flange
top flange
(Fig. 3). This moment is
2
2
statically equalized by a moment due to a shear force V applied at a distance X 0 from the web, namely the shear distance X 0 is given by the following equation:

D:8

References
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[3] Cox HL. Buckling of thin plates in compression, Aeronautical
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AFWAL-TR-85-3069, 454 pp, June 1985.
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