Effect of stiffener size on ultimate strength of GFRP blade stiffened composite plates

Abstract

The ultimate strength of blade stiffened composite plates with various sizes of the stiffener is studied numerically using ANSYS software. The GFRP stiffened composite plates were modeled in ANSYS as SHELL elements with orthotropic properties. The finite element model of the GFRP stiffened composite plates was analysed to obtain deflection, axial deformation and stress contours and the ultimate load values. The obtained results of the finite element model were validated with that of available experimental data. The validated finite element model was used to study the effect of stiffener size. The stiffener size was varied from 10mm to 100mm. It was observed that smaller size of stiffeners were ineffective in stiffening the plate. The optimum size of stiffener was found to be 50mm to 75 mm.