Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 July 2016
Stiffened panels usually consist of a skin of uniform thickness with several identical equally spaced longitudinal stiffeners. This paper demonstrates that the weight of a panel which is designed to have a specified initial buckling load, in uniform longitudinal compression, can be reduced by using more than one size of stiffener.
Initial buckling stresses quoted were all obtained using the computer program VIPAL, which is based on a recent “exact” method which allows for coupling between all possible modes. In this method the panel is considered as an assembly of thin uniform flat rectangular plates which are rigidly connected together along their longitudinal edges and are simply supported at their ends. The in-plane destabilising effects of the longitudinal compressive stress on the behaviour of these plates are included.