Buckling Strength of Damaged Stiffened Panels
Numerical and experimental simulations for small scale damaged stiffened panels are performed. Six small scale stiffened panels were fabricated following special techniques to keep them in accordance with usual tolerances related to initial geometric imperfections due to fabrication. Ultimate buckling strength analyses were carried out in order to perform a correlation study to adjust the numerical model for further use in parametric studies. The damage was imposed with a local indentation on the panels. Measurements of the geometric imperfection distributions and damage shapes were accomplished using the equipment laser tracker. It is a portable contact measurement equipment that uses laser technology with sub-millimeter accuracy. The numerical models are represented by shell elements assuming finite membrane strains and large rotations, considering both geometric and material nonlinearities. The aim of the work is to study the failure behavior up to and beyond buckling to evaluate the strength loss due to the damage imposed to the panel. Additionally, some numerical simulations of damaged stiffened panels were performed. In these analyses the damage was done with explicit nonlinear finite element code from ABAQUS program. Therefore the distortions and the residual stresses due to the damage are both considered in subsequent compression analysis.