Influence of Model Geometry and Boundary Conditions on the Ultimate Strength of Stiffened Panels Under Uniaxial Compressive Loading

The aim of this paper is to determine an appropriate configuration of the boundary conditions and geometric model to calculate the ultimate strength of a continuous stiffened panel under compressive loading in the finite element (FE) analysis. The 1 + 1 spans model with periodical symmetric boundary conditions is proposed to be used in the FE analysis, whose results are compared with the 1/2 + 1 + 1/2 span model with periodical symmetric and symmetric boundary condition, and the 1/2 + 1 + 1 + 1/2 span model with symmetric boundary conditions. The effects of the continuity of the stiffened panel with different geometric models and boundary conditions on its collapse mode are investigated. A beam tension test has been used to define the true stress-strain relationship in the FE analysis. The two-span model, either 1 + 1 or 1/2 + 1 + 1/2, with periodical symmetric conditions give a reasonable FE modeling, which can consider both odd and even number half waves and, thus, have the smallest model uncertainty.