An improvement of the smeared theory for stiffened plates

Abstract

This paper presents a new development of the simplifying smearing technique for modelling vibration of cross-stiffened, rectangular plates. This computational-efficient smearing technique has been known for many years, but so far the accuracy of predicted natural frequencies has been inadequate. The reason is that calculations of the equivalent area moment of inertia and corresponding bending stiffness of the plate and stiffeners in one direction have neglected the influence of stiffeners arranged perpendicular to that direction. In order to improve the prediction, these perpendicular stiffeners are taken into account in this paper, and this improved smearing technique results in a better accuracy for the natural frequencies of flat stiffened plates. Moreover, the theory is extended to include curved stiffened plates. The higher prediction accuracy is demonstrated by comparing results from a numerical model based on this new development, with results from finite element simulations that include the exact cross-sectional geometries. These findings are verified by experiments with both a flat and a double-curved, cross-stiffened panel fabricated from solid blocks of material.

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