A numerical assessment of the buckling/ultimate strength characteristics of stiffened aluminium plates with fixed/floating transverse frames

The main target of this research is to identify the merits and disadvantages of the application of a newly proposed design of stiffened aluminium plates incorporating transverse floating frames, from buckling/ultimate strength points of view. In order to achieve this, an extensive investigation into the buckling and ultimate strength of orthogonally stiffened aluminium plates with different structural arrangements of transverse frames is presented in this paper. The transverse frames are assumed to be either in fixed or floating position. Other combined placements of the transverse frames are also proposed and included in the comparative study. Nonlinear finite element analyses are performed on the models. Average stress–average strain relationships and also stress and deflection contours are obtained from the analyses. Buckling and ultimate strength characteristics of all models are identified and compared to each other.The key findings show that the model with transverse floating frames does not necessarily has the highest buckling strength as is believed in common practice. Also, the mixed or complex pattern of the installation of the transverse frames may lead to the highest ultimate strength.