Residual load-carrying capacity of stiffened panels with cracks under uniaxial tension loading considering crack propagation

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present work aims to analyse the ultimate strength of cracked stiffened panels under uniaxial tensile load. A series of finite element models of stiffened panels with various plate thickness, crack lengths, crack locations and crack angles are set up. The ultimate strengths are calculated by extended finite element method and the calculated results are compared to results without considering crack propagation. The results show that the thickness has little effect on the ultimate strength of stiffened plates with through cracks. The ultimate load carrying capacity can be overestimated 30–50% without considering crack propagation. The influence of a crack in the plate is larger than that of a crack located in the stiffener. The ultimate strength degrades with the increase of the angle between the crack and the load.