Evaluation of Various Analytical Models for Buckling and Vibration of Stiffened Shells
An investigation is made of the magnitude of errors introduced by various widely accepted modeling techniques. Numerical studies are made of ring-stiffened cylinders under external pressure and semisandwich corrugated panels under axial compression. The investigation is performed with use of BOSOR4, a computer code for the stress, buckling, and vibration analysis of branched shells of revolution and prismatic shells with complex wall construction. It is shown that predicted buckling loads and vibration frequencies can be unexpectedly sensitive to modeling details such as fastener dimensions, prestress deformations, out-of-piane stiffness of rings, and differing locations of ring shear center and centroid. A procedure is demonstrated for the inclusion of effects of local wall distortion on the instability failure of shells with complex wall construction.