Finite element analysis of T-shaped stiffened composite plates based on effective stiffness matrix

Based on effective stiffness matrix, the T-shaped stiffeners could be idealized as beam by translating the modulus of T-shaped laminated material to the modulus of 3D anisotropic material. For the basic load cases uniform compression and pure shear and their combination, the finite element analysis of T-shaped stiffened composite plates will be done by Nastran, and then the similarities and differences of analysis results on beam and shell will be presented. The investigate indicate that the method, using beam stiffeners connected by mpc instead of shell stiffeners to simulated the model, could satisfy the required precision, and the results of nonlinear analysis are approaching to the experiments' results. In addition, the application of beam element could reduce the calculation time and advance computational efficiency compared to shell element, which is in favor of simulation and analysis in large-scale stiffened composite plates.