Potential of cross section varying Ω stringer made of carbon fibre reinforced plastics

•A particular omega stringer with variable width and height is introduced.•A great amount of parametric studies is performed with finite element models.•A static buckling experiment including DIC is performed.•The use of the stringer increases the skin buckling load of stiffened panels.

Modern lightweight structures commonly use stiffeners of constant cross section to increase the stability of thin shells. This paper introduces a particular Ω stringer with variable cross section, allowing an increase of local skin buckling load, through an effective partitioning of the skin fields. The present work contains a methodology to develop a feasible design for stiffened shells. Parametric studies including criteria like stability, strength and damage tolerance, are performed. Additionally, a static compression experiment is conducted. Considering actual sizing criteria it can be shown that the introduced type of stringer leads to improved load carrying capacity through weight quotients.