This paper on "Experiences from the Buckling and Postbuckling Analyses of a Composite Panel" was presented at the 5th International Conference on Reliability of Finite Element Methods for Engineering Applications - 10-12 May 1995, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Summary

Buckling, post-buckling and failure analyses of stiffened composite panels using different FE-systems are presented. The panels were tested in compression under displacement control in a very stiff test machine. Buckling and post-buckling analyses using ABAQUS, MSC-NASTRAN. ELANI and FE77 shell element models were performed. Critical skin/stiffener sections were modelled in detail using plane elements and simple stress based criteria were used to predict skin stiffener separation. Good agreement between predicted and measured results was generally obtained.