1

73015

ESTIMATION OF THE LOCAL BUCKLING STRESS UNDER BIAXIAL

COMPRESSION OF AN ISOTROPIC SKIN WITH FIBRE REINFORCED INTEGRAL
UNFLANGED STIFFENERS
1. INTRODUCTION
This Item illustrates by reference to a specific example the use of Item No. 73007 for estimating the local
buckling
*
stress under biaxial loading of an isotropic skin stiffened by orthotropic unflanged stringers.
2. NOTATION
The notation used is the same as that of Item Nos. Struct 02.01.28, 73007 and 94003. The suffixes listed
below are added to facilitate description of the calculations.
It should be noted that the sign convention of Item Nos. Struct 02.01.28 and 73007 is compressive stresses
positive whereas the sign convention of Item No. 94003 is tensile stresses positive.
3. EXAMPLE
The panel shown above is subjected to a transverse compressive stress of 20 N/mm
2
and to a longitudinal
loading such that the stringers remain unbent in their own plane. It is required to find the longitudinal load
at which local buckling will occur. The material of the plate and stiffeners is aluminium alloy which has a
Young's modulus of 73 000 N/mm
2
, a shear modulus of 28 100 N/mm
2
and a Poisson's ratio of 0.3. The
stiffeners are reinforced by layers (5 each side) of 0.04 mm thick carbon fibre reinforced plastic. The
properties of an individual layer of reinforcement under direct in-plane stresses are: Young's modulus of
*
Local buckling is described and discussed in Item No. 72012 "Information on the use of Data Items on the buckling of plates and
compression panels manufactured from isotropic materials".
refers to panel and to x-direction
refers to skin and to x- and y-directions respectively
refers to stiffener and to x-direction
px
skx sky ,
st x
Issued November 1975
with Amendment A
2
73015

207 000 N/mm

2
along the fibres and 7600 N/mm
2
across the fibres, shear modulus parallel and normal to
the fibres of 5000 N/mm
2
and Poisson's ratio under load along the fibres of 0.3. The fibres are arranged,
starting with the innermost layer and going outwards, at angles of 0, 15, 0, +15, 0 to the longitudinal
axis of the stiffeners.
4. DESCRIPTION OF THE CALCULATION PROCEDURE
4.1 General
The basic method of determining the local buckling stress of panels with unflanged integral stiffeners is
described in Section 4.1 of Item No. Struct 02.01.28 and is shown to be dependent upon the relationship
(4.1)
between the unbalanced couple at the junctions of component flats and the angular rotations at the
junctions. The stiffness A
1
denotes a value of for A and B
2
a value of for B. The values of and
depend upon the buckle half wavelength, the longitudinal and transverse stresses and the plate
stiffnesses.
Under the action of the longitudinal compressive stress local buckling occurs when the value of in
Equation (4.1) is zero. The calculation procedure consists of a search for the wavelength that yields the
minimum stress at . This minimum stress is then the local buckling stress. Notes on the initial
choice of the stress and wavelength appear in Item No. Struct 02.01.28 and in Section 5.6 of this Item.
4.2 Particular Calculations for the Example
The reinforced stiffener may be represented as a single orthotropic plate. The Example of Item No. 94003
calculates the in-plane and flexural stiffness matrices A and D respectively.
Owing to the different in-plane stiffnesses of the skin and the stringer and the transverse load in the skin
the stresses acting on these members will not, in general, be equal for a given panel strain. For this reason
it is simpler in this particular example to investigate a range of panel loads in terms of the stresses acting
in the component flats.
5. THE CALCULATION
5.1 Data Calculated in Item No. 94003
From the example of Item No. 94003 for the stiffener
N/mm, mm/N
and N mm.
T

/ A
1
2B
2
+ =
T

1

2

1

2
T

/
T

/ 0 =
A
159.2 26.92 0
26.92 83.48 0
0 0 32
10
3
= A
1
0.00664 0.00214 0
0.00214 0.0127 0
0 0 0.0312
10
3
=
D
35.4 3.03 0.351
3.03 7.87 0.034
0.351 0.034 3.76
10
3
=
3
73015

The terms D
13
, D
23
, D
31
and D
32
of the matrix D defined in Item No. 73007 are zero. In the above D
matrix these terms are sufficiently small in relation to the other terms of D for Item No. 73007 to be
applicable.
5.2 Distribution of Applied Loads Between Skin and Stiffeners
For a given panel load intensity, N
px
, the stiffener and skin loads must sum to N
px
and their strains must be
equal. The stiffener strain is obtained from the relationship (see Equation (4.6) and Section 6.3.1
of Item No. 94003). Since the stiffener is loaded only in the x-direction by N
stx
the only relevant term of
A
-1
is the leading term of 0.00664 10
3
mm/N so that e
stx
= 0.00664 10
3
N
stx
. The skin strain is
given by
.
Equating the skin and stiffener strains and putting yields the skin and stiffener loads
for a given N
px
. Hence, equating the strains gives
Then, summing the load contributions gives
from which N/mm
giving N/mm
2
.
Similarly, N/mm
2
.
5.3 Calculation of Expressions for and for the Skin
The skin is isotropic so that, using Section 1.2 of Item No. 73007,
N/mm
2
and, noting that compressive stresses are positive when using Item No.73007,
.
The stress parameter is given by
.
e A
1
N =
e
skx
N
skx
( N
sky
)/Et =
N
stx
h N
skx
b N
px
b = +
N
st x
N
skx
0.3 20 ( ) 1.5 ( ) / 0.00664 10
3
73000 1.5 ( ) =
N
skx
9 + ( )/ 0.727 N/mm . =
N
skx
9 + ( ) 16/ 0.727 N
skx
40 + N
px
40 =
N
skx
N
px
4.95 ( )/ 1.55 =
f
skx
N
px
4.95 ( )/ 2.32 =
f
stx
0.887N
px
7.98 + ( )/ 1.4 =

f
I

2
73000
3 1 0.3
2
( )
-----------------------------
1.5
40
-------
,
_
2
371 = =

I
1 2 +20/ 371 ( )/ b/ ( )
2
1 0.108/ b/ ( )
2
= =

I
f
skx
371
I
--------------
1
4
---
b

---
,
_
2

I
1

I
-----

' ;

+ =
4
73015

5.4 Calculation of Expressions for and for the Stiffener

The stiffener may be treated as an orthotropic plate (see Section 5.1) so that, using Section 1.3 of Item No.
73007,
N/mm
2
and
D
o
= (3.03 + 2 3.76) 10
3
= 10.6 10
3
N mm
giving, since no transverse stress exists in the stiffener, and . The
stress parameter is given by
.
Also, .
5.5 Stiffness Scale Factors for and
For the skin
N mm/mm.
For the stiffener
N mm/mm.
5.6 Tables 5.1 and 6.1 and the Selection of the Applied Load N
px
and Wavelength
Table 5.1 gives and those terms of that depend upon wavelength only. The results of Table
5.1 are then used in Table 6.1, into which are introduced the applied loads. Table 6.1 then uses the figures
of Item No. 73007 to obtain and and subsequently .
Some guidance on the choice of an initial value of N
px
may be obtained from use of Item No. 70003 which
gives, for the unreinforced panel,
N/mm
at a of about 40 mm. (In cases where an orthotropic component flat is attached at both sides Item
No. 80023 may be used to give equivalent figures.) Thus, the buckling load of 603 N/mm provides a
reasonable starting value. The value of = 40 mm cannot be relied upon. It is usually necessary to extend
the range of investigation of to cover a small range of sub-multiples and multiples of the stiffener pitch;
it is also advisable to check values approaching the panel length. Table 6.1 commences with a of 40 mm
and changes it in steps of 10 mm.

f
o
4
2
7.87 10
3
( )/ 16
2
1.4 ( ) 867 = =

o
10.6/7.87 1.35 = =
o
1 2
1.16 =

o
f
st x
1.35 867
---------------------------
1
4
---
b

---
,
_
2
1.35
35.4/ 7.87
1.35
-----------------------

' ;

+
f
1170
----------- - 0.495
b

---
,
_
2
= =
D
12
/D
o
3.03/10.6 0.286 = =

1

2
E't
3
/3b 73000 [ / 1 ( 0.3
2
) ]1.5
3
/ 3 ( 40) 2260 = =
4D
22
b 4 7.87 10
3
16 1970 = =

1 2
b/ ( )

1
( A
1
) 2
2
( 2B
2
) T

/
N
px
2.85 73000 1.5/ 40 ( )
2
40 1.5 16 1.4 + [ ] 1/ 40 ( ) 603 = =

5
73015

6. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

Figure 2 shows that the minimum panel buckling load is 570 N/mm at a half-wavelength of about 50 mm.
Actual buckle wavelengths may be influenced by the finite length of the panel and by initial irregularities.
Notes on the effect of the initial irregularities are provided in Item No. 72012.
TABLE 5.1
Skin
Stiffener A
(mm) 371 Q P
30
40
50
60
70
1.333
1.000
0.800
0.667
0.571
0.939
0.892
0.831
0.757
0.669
1.292
0.944
0.729
0.580
0.467
348
331
308
281
248
0.056
0.057
0.060
0.063
0.067
0.533
0.400
0.320
0.267
0.229
0.618
0.464
0.371
0.310
0.266
0.141
0.079
0.051
0.035
0.026
,
,
.
b/
I

I
1 2
b ( )
I
b/
o
1 2
b ( )
Q 1/ 4 ( ) b/ ( )
2

I
1/
I
( ) =
P 0.495 b/ ( )
2
=

I
1 0.108/ b/ ( )
2
[ ] =
6
7
3
0
1
5

TABLE 6.1
Skin B Stiffener A
N
px
f
skx
*
*
N/mm
2
and N/mm
2
, see Section 5.2.

Values in these columns are obtauned fromTable 5.1

Q

Values in these columns are taken from Figures 7 and 3 of Item No 73007.
f
stx
*
P

mm N/mm N/mm
2
N/mm
2
N/rad N/mm
2
N/rad
N/rad
40 620
600
580
560
540
265
256
248
239
231
331 0.801
0.773
0.749
0.722
0.698
0.057 0.744
0.716
0.692
0.665
0.641
0.944 0.49
0.51
0.54
0.58
0.62
2200
2300
2400
2600
2800
399
386
373
360
348
0.341
0.330
0.319
0.308
0.297
0.079 0.262
0.251
0.240
0.229
0.218
0.464 1.47
1.16
0.92
0.73
0.57
2900
2290
1800
1400
1100
700
10
600
1200
1700
50 600
580
560
540
520 222
308 0.831
0.805
0.776
0.750
0.721
0.060 0.771
0.745
0.716
0.690
0.661
0.729 0.38
0.39
0.43
0.45
0.48
1700
1800
1900
2000
2200 335 0.286
0.051 0.279
0.268
0.257
0.246
0.235
0.371 1.17
1.00
0.84
0.72
0.61
2300
1970
1700
1400
1200
600
170
200
600
1000
60 620
600
580
560
540
281 0.943
0.911
0.883
0.851
0.822
0.063 0.880
0.848
0.820
0.788
0.759
0.580 0.33
0.35
0.37
0.39
0.42
1500
1600
1700
1800
1900
0.035 0.306
0.295
0.284
0.273
0.262
0.310 1.00
0.88
0.78
0.68
0.61
1970
1700
1500
1300
1200
470
100
200
500
700
70 680
660
640
620
600
291
282
274
248 1.173
1.137
1.105
1.069
1.032
0.067 1.106
1.070
1.038
1.002
0.965
0.467 0.27
0.29
0.32
0.34
0.35
1200
1300
1400
1500
1600
437
424
411
0.374
0.362
0.351
0.026 0.348
0.336
0.325
0.315
0.304
0.266 0.90
0.83
0.75
0.68
0.63
1800
1600
1500
1300
1200
600
300
100
200
400
30 750
740
730
720
700
321
317
313
308
300
348 0.922
0.911
0.899
0.885
0.862
0.056 0.866
0.855
0.843
0.829
0.806
1.292 0.65
0.66
0.70
0.72
0.79
2900
3000
3200
3300
3600
481
475
468
462
449
0.411
0.406
0.400
0.395
0.384
0.141 0.270
0.265
0.259
0.254
0.243
0.618 1.86
1.57
1.32
1.12
0.78
3700
3090
2600
2200
1500
800
90
600
1100
2100

f
skx
N
px
4.95 ( )/ 2.32 ( ) = f
st x
0.887 N
px
7.98 + ( )/1.4 =
371
I
f
skx
371
I
--------------
I

I
1 2 b

---

2
E't
3
/3b
------------------
2B
2
2
2
=
f
stx
1170
----------- -
o

o
1 2 b

---

1
4D
22
/b
-----------------
A
1

1
=
T

------
73015

7
FIGURE 1
N
px
(N/mm)
500 520 540 560 580 600 620 640 660 680 700 720 740 760
T

(N/rad)
-800
-600
-400
-200
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
50 60 40 70 30(mm)
73015

8
FIGURE 2
(mm)
30 40 50 60 70

N
px
(N/mm)
550
600
650
700
750
9
73015

THE PREPARATION OF THIS DATA ITEM

The work on this particular Item was monitored and guided by the Structures Committee which has the
following constitution:
The work on this Item was carried out in the Strength Analysis Group. The member of staff who undertook
the technical work involved in the initial assessment of the available information and the construction and
subsequent development of the Item was

Chairman
Mr I.C. Taig British Aircraft Corporation Ltd, Preston
Vice-Chairman
Prof. W.S. Hemp University of Oxford
Members
Mr H.L. Cox Independent
Mr R.S. Dabbs Hawker Siddeley Aviation Ltd, Kingston
Mr K.H. Griffin Cranfield Institute of Technology
Mr N.F. Harpur British Aircraft Corporation Ltd, Filton
Dr G.Z. Harris Royal Aircraft Establishment
Mr P.J. McKenzie Hawker Siddeley Aviation Ltd, Kingston
Mr J.G. ten Asbroek Fokker-VFW N.V., Schiphol-Oost
Mr F. Tyson Scottish Aviation Ltd.
Mr M.E. Grayley Group Head.