Buckling of 120° stiffened composite cylindrical shell under axial compression – Experiment and simulation

Typical specimens (with a central angle of 120°) of stiffened composite cylindrical shell structure and the experimental clamp tools are designed in the experiment. As the experiment results show, in compression, the upper and the lower part of the specimens concave inward and the middle part bulges outward. The buckling destruction of specimens is observed in the middle part and the transverse stiffeners debond from the skin in compression. The compression buckling experiment is simulated with three methods: linear buckling, eigenvalue-based nonlinear buckling, and implicit nonlinear buckling. As the finite element simulation results show, when the border has no side stiffeners or the side stiffeners are inadequately intensified, the model buckles first at the border; when the side stiffeners are adequately intensified, the model buckles first in the middle. The simulation results of the three methods fit the experiment results properly.