Semi-analytical buckling strength analysis of plates with arbitrary stiffener arrangements

Buckling of plates with arbitrarily oriented, sniped stiffeners is studied. The main objective is to present and validate an approximate, semi-analytical computational model for such plates subjected to in-plane loading. Estimation of the buckling strength is made using the von Mises’ yield criterion for the membrane stress as the strength limit. The formulations derived are implemented in a Fortran computer code, and numerical results are obtained for a variety of plate and stiffener geometries. The model may handle complex plate geometries, by using inclined stiffeners to enclose irregular plate shapes. The method allows for a very efficient analysis. Relatively high numerical accuracy is achieved with low computational efforts. The results are, in most cases, found to be conservative compared to fully nonlinear finite element analysis results.