Dynamic instability analysis of laminated composite stiffened shell panels subjected to in-plane harmonic edge loading

The dynamic instability characteristics of laminated composite stiffened shell panels subjected to in-plane harmonic edge loading are investigated in this paper. The eight-noded isoparametric degenerated shell element and a compatible three-noded curved beam element are used to model the shell panels and the stiffeners respectively. As the usual formulation of degenerated beam element is found to overestimate the torsional rigidity, an attempt has been made to reformulate it in an efficient manner. Moreover the new formulation for the beam element requires five degrees of freedom per node as that of shell element. The method of Hill's infinite determinant is applied to analyze the dynamic instability regions. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate the effects of various parameters like shell geometry, lamination scheme, stiffening scheme, static and dynamic load factors and boundary conditions, on the dynamic instability behaviour of laminated composite stiffened panels subjected to in-plane harmonic loads along the boundaries. The results of free vibration and buckling of the laminated composite stiffened curved panels are also presented.