An efficient finite element modeling of composite stiffened shells

Abstract

This paper presents an efficient finite element modeling technique for stiffened composite shells having different stiffening arrangements. The laminated shell skin is modeled with a triangular degenerated curved shell element having 3 comer nodes and 3 mid-side nodes. An efficient curved beam element compatible with the shell element is developed for the modeling of stiffeners which may have different lamination schemes. The formulation of the 3 nod degenerated beam element may be considered as one of the major contributions. The deformation of the beam element is completely defined in terms of the degrees of freedom of shell elements and it does not require any additional degrees of freedom. As the usual formulation of degenerated beam elements overestimates their torsional rigidity, a torsion conection factor is introduced for different lamination schemes. Numerical examples are solved by the proposed finite element technique to assess its performance.