Effect of Stringer Design on the Stability of Stiffened Composite Panel Under In-plane Shear: An Experimental Study

Abstract

The safe exploitation of the buckling and post-bulking region of stiffened composite panels is of prime interest in aerospace engineering. Experiments were carried out to investigate the effects of stringer design on the buckling and post-buckling behavior of stiffened composite panels subjected to in-plane shear loading in this study. Three configurations of I-shape stringers were designed with the same skin in the stiffened composite panels. The shear loading was applied through a customized picture-frame rig which is loaded by a mechanical test machine. Ten specimens in total were manufactured and tested to obtain the buckling loads and the final failure loads, respectively. The experimental results show that the stringer design has much more influence on the buckling load than the final failure load of the stiffened composite panel.