Comparative Study of Post-Buckling Load Redistribution in Stiffened Aircraft Panel With and Without Material Nonlinearity

In this article, a comparative study is presented on the post-buckling load redistribution in stiffened aircraft panels modeled with and without material nonlinearity. In the first part of the study, a baseline stiffened panel is generated for further investigation of the material nonlinearity on the post-buckling behavior and on the effective width of the stiffened panel. In this respect, a stiffener section which provides classical clamped edge condition is designed by matching the compression buckling coefficient determined by the finite element analysis closely with the analytically determined buckling coefficient of the clamped edge panel. Post-buckling analysis of the stiffened panel is then performed utilizing linear and nonlinear material models in the finite element analysis and the effect of material plasticity on the post-buckling behavior of the panel is ascertained. The load distribution in the stiffened panel is investigated just before the buckling of the panel and before the collapse of the panel in the post-buckled stage. The effective widths of the panel are calculated before the collapse of the panel using the load distributions determined by the finite element analyses of the panel models with and without material nonlinearity and comparisons are made with the effective width calculated by the classical effective width formulation. It is shown that material nonlinearity accounts for higher effective width and in general the classical empirical approach gives the smallest effective width.