The Effects of Helical Ribs’ Number and Grid Types on the Buckling of Thin-walled GFRP-stiffened Shells under Axial Loading

Abstract

The results of an experimental study on the buckling behavior of thin-walled GFRP-stiffened cylindrical shells are presented. The buckling behavior of stiffened shells, with lozenge and triangular grids, and unstiffened shells were studied under quasi-static axial loading at room temperature. The effect of the number of helical ribs and grid shapes was thoroughly investigated. During the experimental study, local skin buckling mode was observed on all specimens. Based on the findings from this work, a minimum number of stiffeners should be present in a structure in order to play an effective role in its strength. Furthermore, it was concluded that under axial loading, increasing the number of helical ribs is more effective than adding hoop rings and changing the grid types.

Keywords

buckling load specific load composite shells stiffened shells.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Baker, W.E. and Bennett, J.G. ( 1984). Experimental Investigation of Buckling of Nuclear Containment Like Cylindrical Geometries under Combined Shear and Bending, Nuclear Engineering and Design, 79: 211-216.

Kim, T.D. (1999). Fabrication and Testing of Composite Isogrid Stiffened Cylinder, Composite Structures , 45: 6-10.

Kim, T.D. (2000). Fabrication and Testing of Thin Composite Isogrid Stiffened Panel, Composite Structures , 49: 21-25.

Meyer-Piening, H.R. (2001). Buckling Loads of CFRP Un-stiffened Composite Cylinders under Combined Axial and Torsion Loading-Experiments and Computations, Composite Structures, 53: 427-435.

Bisagni, C. and Cordisco, P. ( 2003). An Experimental Investigation into the Buckling and Post-buckling of CFRP Shells under Combined Axial and Torsion Loading, Composite Structures, 60: 391-402.

Wodesenbet, E. and Kidane, S. (2003). Optimization for Buckling Loads of Grid Stiffened Composite Panels, Composite Structures , 60: 159-169.

Kidane, S. and Wodesenbet, E. ( 2003). Buckling Load Analysis of Grid Stiffened Composite Cylinders , Composites: Part B, 34: 9-15.

Bisagni, C. and Cordisco, P. ( 2006). Post-buckling and Collapse Experiments of Stiffened Composite Cylindrical Shells Subjected to Axial Loading and Torque, Composite Structures, 73: 138-149.

Yazdani, M. , Rahimi, H. , Khatibi, A.A. and Hamzeh, S. ( 2009). An Experimental Investigation into the Buckling of GFRP Stiffened Shells under Axial Loading, Scientific Research and Essay, 9: 914-920.