Dynamic buckling of a laminated composite stringer–stiffened cylindrical panel

Abstract

The present study deals with the “dynamic buckling” of a laminated composite stringer–stiffened curved panel. The “dynamic buckling”, in the present study, is concerned with the unbounded lateral response of the panel, which is subjected to an axial impact load.In reinforced panels with widely spaced adequately stiff stringers, the structure may pass through two major states before its total collapse: buckling of the panel skin between stiffeners and buckling of the stiffeners themselves. This study focuses on the lowest buckling load of the stringer–stiffened panel, which is, buckling of the panel skin between stiffeners.The analysis of the laminated composite stringer–stiffened cylindrical panel was performed by using the commercial ANSYS finite element software. The model simulates the structure and its associated boundary conditions. The boundary conditions simulate the stringer–stiffened cylindrical panel as a part of a fuselage. The static buckling analysis was performed using the eigenvalue buckling approach to determine the static critical load. Modal analysis was used to calculate the first natural frequency and corresponding mode shape of the structure. Nonlinear transient dynamic analysis was used to determine the dynamic critical load. In the transient dynamic analysis the Newmark method with the Newton–Raphson scheme were used.In the present study, the equation of motion approach was applied. By this approach, the equations of motion were numerically solved for various load parameter values (loading amplitude and loading duration) to obtain the system response. Special attention was given to the neighborhood of loading durations corresponding to the period of the lowest bending frequency of the skin.For each load duration, the dynamic buckling load was calculated using a load versus lateral displacement curve generated by the ANSYS code.The results were plotted on a dynamic load amplification factor (DLF) graph. The DLF is defined, as the ratio of the dynamic buckling to the static buckling of the panel. For loading periods in the neighborhood of the lowest natural frequency of the panel, the DLF was less than unity. It means that, for those particular loading periods, the dynamic buckling load is lower than the static one.