• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.1A
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• pp.191-203
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• 2006

The vibration characteristics of composite stiffened laminated plates with stiffener is presented using the assumed natural strain 9-node shell element. To compare with previous research, the stiffened plates are composed of carbon-epoxy composite laminate with a symmetric stacking sequence. Also, the result of the present shell model for the stiffener made of composite material is compared with that of the beam model. In the case of torsionally weak stiffener, a local buckling occurs in the stiffener. In this case, the stiffener should be idealized by using the shell elements. The current investigation concentrates upon the vibration analysis of rectangular stiffened and unstiffened composite plates when subjected to the in-plane compression and shear loads. The in-plane compression affect the natural frequencies and mode shapes of the stiffened laminated composite plates and the increase in magnitude of the in-plane compressive load reduces the natural frequencies, which will become zero when the in-plane load is equal to the critical buckling load of the plate. The natural frequencies of composite stiffened plates with shear loads exhibit the higher values than the case of without shear loads. Also, the intersection, between the curves of frequencies against in-plane loads, interchanges the sequence of some of the mode shapes as a result of the increase in the inplane compressive load. The results are compared with those available in the literature and this result shows that the present shell model for the stiffened plate gives more accurate results. Therefore, the magnitude, direction type of the in-plane shear and compressive loads in laminated composite stiffened plates should be selected properly to control the specific frequency and mode shape. The Lanczos method is employed to solve the eigenvalue problems.