FEM Analysis of Stiffened Plates using ANSYS

Abstract

In the present world, the increasing demand of structurally efficient and significantly higher strength to weight ratio structures is mostly served by Stiffened plates. These structural elements can be defined as plates reinforced by a single or a set of beams or ribs on one or both sides of the plate. So, stiffened plates are made up of plate elements, to which generally loading is applied, and beam elements located at discrete spacings in one or both directions. The present work deals with the structural behaviour of a stiffened plate under static uniform loads. Firstly, we will consider a geometrically nonlinear beam problem by analyzing the large deflections of a beam of linear elastic material, under the action of transverse load along its length. Under the action of these external loads, the beam deflects into a curve called the elastic curve. Firstly, the relationship between the beam deflection and the loads would be established using Ansys and then the results would be extended to perform analysis on Stiffened plates. The linear and nonlinear behaviour of the beams would be studied under static and dynamic loading .The simulation analysis is completed with a numerical analysis of the system using the ANSYS program, a comprehensive finite element package, which enables students to solve the nonlinear differential equation . ANSYS provides a rich graphics capability that can be used to display results of analysis on a high-resolution graphics workstation.