Weight comparisons of optimized stiffened, unstiffened, and sandwich cylindrical shells made from composite or aluminum materialsThis work presents optimum designs for unstiffened, hat stringer-stiffened and honeycomb sandwich cylinders under axial compression. Optimization results for graphite-epoxy cylinders show about a 50 percent weight savings over corresponding optimized aluminum cylinders for a wide loading range. The inclusion of minimum gage considerations results in a significant weight penalty, especially for a lightly loaded cylinder. Effects of employing a smeared stiffener buckling theory in the optimization program are investigated through comparison of results obtained from a more accurate branched shell buckling computer code. It was found that the stiffener cross-sectional deformations, which are usually ignored in smeared stiffener theory, result in about a 30 percent lower buckling load for the graphite-epoxy hat stiffened cylinder.
Document ID
19760047074
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Proceedings
Authors
Agarwal, B. L. (Northrop Corp. Hawthorne, Calif., United States)
Sobel, L. H. (Westinghouse Electric Corp. Madison, Pa., United States)
Date Acquired
August 8, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1976
Subject Category
Structural Mechanics
Meeting Information
Meeting: Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference