Nonlinear bending analysis of laminated composite stiffened plates

Abstract

This paper deals with the geometric nonlinear bending analysis of laminated composite stiffened plates subjected to uniform transverse loading. The eight-noded degenerated shell element and three-noded degenerated curved beam element with five degrees of freedom per node are adopted in the present analysis to model the plate and stiffeners respectively. The Green-Lagrange strain displacement relationship is adopted and the total Lagrangian approach is taken in the formulation. The convergence study of the present formulation is carried out first and the results are compared with the results published in the literature. The stiffener element is reformulated taking the torsional rigidity in an efficient manner. The effects of lamination angle, depth of stiffener and number of layers, on the bending response of the composite stiffened plates are considered and the results are discussed.