Thin-Walled Structures 37 (2000) 126 www.elsevier.

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Tripping of thin-walled stiffeners in the axially compressed stiffened panel with lateral pressure
Yuren Hu
a

a,*

, Bozhen Chen a, Jiulong Sun

School of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong University, 1954 Hua Shan Road, Shanghai 200030, China b Shanghai Rules and Research Institute, China Classication Society, 1234 Pudong Ave., Shanghai 200135, China Received 13 August 1999; received in revised form 6 January 2000; accepted 31 January 2000

Abstract Tripping of stiffeners in stiffened panels under combined loads of axial force and lateral pressure is studied. Firstly, on the basis of the Vlasovs differential equation for torsional buckling of thin-walled bars, a generalized eigenvalue problem for tripping of stiffeners is derived by using the Galerkins Method. Then the effect of the lateral pressure (dead load) to the critical axial stress (live load) upon tripping is investigated by solving the eigenvalue problem. The rotational restraint provided by the plate is taken into account. The effects of the compressive stress in the plate and the plate buckling mode are also discussed. Finally, an approximate equation to estimate the critical tripping stress with the effect of the lateral pressure is proposed. After some modications, it can be applied in design rules for the purpose of checking the tripping strength of the stiffeners. 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Stiffened plate panel; Tripping; Torsional buckling

1. Introduction The orthogonally stiffened panel is a fundamental structural component in ship hulls. It is also widely used in civil engineering, bridge, aerospace, offshore and other engineering elds. In modern ships with longitudinal framing system, stiffeners

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +86-21-6384-2238. E-mail address: yurenhuc@online.sh.cn (Y. Hu).

0263-8231/00/$ - see front matter 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 2 6 3 - 8 2 3 1 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 0 1 0 - 0

Y. Hu et al. / Thin-Walled Structures 37 (2000) 126

are more closely spaced in the longitudinal direction than those in the transverse direction, On the other hand, the longitudinal stiffeners are weaker than the transverse ones. When the panel is subjected to longitudinal compression, buckling of stiffeners between two adjacent transverse frames will be one of the most important failure modes of the panel [1]. Buckling of stiffeners between two adjacent transverse frames can be further divided into two categories. One is the beam-column type exural buckling of the stiffener-plate combination. The other is the tripping of a stiffener about its line of attachment to the plate as shown in Fig. 1. The stiffeners usually have thin-walled open cross-sections, such as T, angle cross-sections. Due to the low torsional rigidity of the thin-walled open cross-section, tripping will occur prior to beam-column type exural buckling when the stiffeners are subjected to axial compression. A stiffener will fail rapidly upon tripping, leading to the subsequent loss of the load carrying capacity of the whole panel. Therefore, this kind of failure mode is thought to be very dangerous and has drawn great attention of structural engineers. It has been recognized that tripping should be fully taken into consideration in estimating the ultimate longitudinal strength of ship hulls [13]. Many classication societies have also required in their design rules that tripping strength of stiffeners should be checked [47]. Study on tripping of stiffeners in stiffened panels under pure axial compression (without lateral pressure) has a quite long history. Earlier work was summarized by Bleich in his well-known book [8]. Further works were carried out by Faulkner, Adamchak and others in the 1970s and 1980s [912]. An elaboration of this problem can also be found in Hughes book [13]. Some new works were reported by Danielson and others in the 1990s [14,15]. Most of the above mentioned works are based on the classical theory of thin-walled bars. In addition, the folded plate analysis was also employed by Wittrick [16] and Smith [17]. In recent years, non-linear nite element method has become a powerful tool in research on this subject [18]. Another problem closely related to tripping of stiffeners under axial load is tripping of stiffeners under pure lateral pressure (without axial load). When the panel is subjected to lateral pressure only, stiffeners will trip if the lateral pressure reaches a critical value. This is the case when the stiffeners in the transverse bulkhead of ships are considered. This problem has been studied by many researchers. Among

Fig. 1.

Tripping of stiffeners.

Y. Hu et al. / Thin-Walled Structures 37 (2000) 126

others, one of the authors has published two papers on this subject [19,20], in which tripping of stiffeners under lateral pressure was analyzed by using the Galerkins method and design curves were proposed to estimate the critical value of the lateral pressure. Generally, the two cases, i.e. under axial load and under lateral pressure, are studied separately. However, the two kinds of load are applied simultaneously in many structures. For instance, panels in ship bottom, side and longitudinal bulkhead are subjected to not only the axial load caused by longitudinal bending of the hull, but also the transverse load caused by the local water or cargo pressure. Therefore, it is necessary to study the problem of tripping of stiffeners under the combined load of axial force and lateral pressure. An approximate equation as follows has been proposed by Adamchak to modify the critical axial stress by taking into account the effect of the lateral pressure [2,10]. sT,E q
0

sT,E q=0 1

q qcr

(1)

where qcr is the critical value of the lateral pressure when no axial load exists. Recently, Hughes and Ma investigated the elastic and inelastic tripping of stiffeners under axial force, end moment, lateral pressure and their combinations by using energy method [21,22]. The purpose of this paper is to study tripping of stiffeners in stiffened panels under combined loads of axial force and lateral pressure. Firstly, on the basis of the Vlasovs differential equation for torsional buckling of thin-walled bars, a generalized eigenvalue problem for tripping of stiffeners is derived by using the Galerkins Method. The method developed in the paper can be conveniently used to cope with the tripping problems of stiffeners under axial force, lateral pressure and their combinations including two cases of live axial force with dead lateral pressure and live lateral pressure with dead axial force. The method can also easily be extended to the load case of end moment, which is not discussed in the paper. Then the effect of the lateral pressure (dead load) to the critical axial stress (live load) upon tripping is investigated by solving the eigenvalue problem. The rotational restraint provided by the plate is taken into account. The effects of the compressive stress in the plate and the plate buckling mode are also discussed. Finally, an approximate equation to estimate the critical tripping stress with the effect of the lateral pressure is proposed. After some modications, it can be applied in design rules for the purpose of checking the tripping strength of the stiffeners. 2. Analytical model and differential equation The stiffener considered is assumed to be a thin-walled bar under an axial force of P=sA combined with a uniformly distributed lateral pressure q (force per unit length). It can rotate about its line of attachment to the plate. The plate will bend when the stiffener rotates and provide a rotational restraint to the stiffener at the line of attachment. The analytical model of the stiffener is shown in Fig. 2.

Y. Hu et al. / Thin-Walled Structures 37 (2000) 126

Fig. 2.

Analytical model of a stiffener.

Further, a stiffener with general asymmetric cross-section as shown in Fig. 3 is considered. x axis and y axis are the principal axes of the cross-section. The angle between the plate and the x axis is denoted by q. The lateral pressure is assumed to apply at the line of attachment with the direction normal to the plate. This is a reasonable assumption for panels subjected to uniformly distributed lateral pressure. The lateral pressure is dened positive when it points to the plate side as shown in Fig. 3. The lateral pressure q can be resolved into two components in the direction of x axis and y axis, which are qx qsin q qy qcos q (2)

The following differential equation is derived by Vlasov [23,24] for torsional buckling of the thin-walled bar with a xed axis of rotation. EIw,DjIV+(Ip,DsGJ)j +[(Mxby,D+Mybx,D)j ] +[qx(xdex)+qy(ydey)]j+kjj=0 (3) where j is the twisting angle of the stiffener; E is the elastic modulus of the material;

Fig. 3.

General asymmetric cross-section of a stiffener.

Y. Hu et al. / Thin-Walled Structures 37 (2000) 126

Iw,D and Ip,D are the sectorial moment of inertia and the polar moment of inertia of the stiffener cross-section about the axis of rotation, respectively; J is the torsional moment of inertia of the cross-section; bx,D and by,D are another two sectional properties whose denition can be found together with others in Appendix A of the paper; kf is the spring stiffness per unit length of the rotational restraint on the axis of rotation; xd and yd are the coordinates of the axis of rotation; ex and ey are the coordinates of the application point of the lateral pressure; Mx and My are the bending moments caused by the lateral pressure. When the lateral pressure is uniformly distributed, Mx, My and their derivatives Mx, My (shear forces in the stiffener) are Mx = q cos qa2 z z2 2 a a2 Mx = q cos qa z 12 2 a

q sin qa2 z z2 My = 2 a a2

q sin qa z My = 12 2 a

(4)

According to the analytical model of the stiffener, the axis of rotation and the axis of application of the lateral pressure coincide, so the differential equation can be simplied to EIw,DjIV (Ip,Ds GJ)j where bD cos qby,D sin qbx,D (6) qbDa2 z z2 j 2 a a2 qbDa z 1 2 j 2 a kjj 0 (5)

The rotational restraint to the stiffener is provided by the plate. The rotational spring stiffness per unit length, kj, can be derived by considering bending of the plate strip of an innitesimal width dz as an elastic beam [13,23], which is kj Et3 3b(1n2) (7)

where b is the stiffener spacing. t is the plate thickness. n is the Poissons ratio of the material. The effects of the compressive stress in the plate and plate buckling mode are ignored in Eq. (7). We will discuss these effects in Section 5 of this paper.

3. Galerkins method and the eigenvalue problem The Galerkins Method is used to solve the differential Eq. (5). The twisting angle of the stiffener is expressed in a series form as follows. j(z)
n

rnyn(z)

(8)

Y. Hu et al. / Thin-Walled Structures 37 (2000) 126

where yn(z) is a function satisfying all the boundary conditions of the stiffener. According to the Galerkins method, integrating along the length of the stiffener yields the following equation.
a

EIw,D
0 n

IV rnyn (Ip,Ds GJ) n

rnyn

qbDa2 z z2 2 a a2

rny n
n

qbDa 1 2

(9)

z 2 a

rnyn kj
n n

rnyn ym dz 0

m 1,2,3,

After integration and manipulation, a set of homogeneous linear equations in a matrix form can be obtained as follows: ([A] q[B] s[C]){r} {0} The elements of the matrices [A], [B] and [C] are
a a a

(10)

Aij EIw,D yIV(z)yi(z) dz j

0 a

GJ yj (z)yi(z) dz kj yj (z)yi(z) dz
0 0

(11)

Bij

z z2 bDa [a y (z) 2 a a2 j
0 a

z 1 2 yj (z)]yi(z) dz a

(12)

Cij

Ip,D yj (z)yi(z) dz
0

(13)

Generally speaking, when q is a dead load and s is a live load, the critical stress can be determined by setting the determinant of the coefcient matrix in Eq. (10), ([A] q[B] s[C]), equal to zero and solving the equation for s. Then, among all the solutions of s the smallest one is the critical stress sT,E. However, the higher order algebraic equation of s is usually difcult to solve. Therefore there is a need to seek a more efcient method. It can be found that Eq. (10) is a generalized eigenvalue problem. Since matrices [A], [B] and [C] are symmetric and matrix [C] is positively determined, Eq. (10) can be transformed to a standard form. Firstly, [C] is tridiagonalized by using the Cholesckis Method. [C] [LC][LC]T (14) where [LC] is a tridiagonal matrix. Then the following standard eigenvalue problem can be derived. ([K] s[I]){r} {0} or det([K] s[I]) 0 (15)

Y. Hu et al. / Thin-Walled Structures 37 (2000) 126

where [K] [LC]T([A] q[B])[LC] (16)

After suitably choosing the number of the terms of the twisting angle series, n, the standard eigenvalue problem can be solved by using the well-established method such as the Jacobi Method or the Method of Bisection. Then the smallest eigenvalue obtained is the critical stress sT,E. Generally, the stiffener is assumed to be simply supported. Then the twisting angle series can be written as npz yn(z) sin a Substituting it into Eq. (13) yields (17)

0 Aij a ip 4 ip 2 +GJ +kj] [EIw,D 2 a a 0 Bij bDa ij(i +j ) (i2j 2)2

2 2 2 2

i j i=j (18)

ij=2k1 ij=2k ij=0 (19)

(p i 3) bDa 24

0 Cij a ip I 2 p,D a
2

i j i=j (20)

Results of calculation show that the method developed above converges rapidly. In general cases, a rather accurate result can be obtained by choosing a twisting angle series with only a few terms. An example is given below for illustration. Consider a stiffener with a T crosssection. The height and thickness of the web of the stiffener are d=35 cm and tw=0.6 cm, respectively. The breadth and the thickness of the ange are bf=10 cm and tf=0.8 cm, respectively. The length of the stiffener is a=600 cm. The spacing of stiffeners is b=60 cm. The thickness of the plate is t=0.6 cm. The critical stresses under lateral

Y. Hu et al. / Thin-Walled Structures 37 (2000) 126

pressure of different values and by choosing different numbers of series terms are listed in Table 1. It can be seen from the table that generally a very accurate result can be obtained when n=5. If the lateral pressure is not large, then n=3 is enough. In fact, in many cases, only one term can yield a reasonably accurate result, but it should be noted that the critical stress does not necessarily correspond to the rst term of the series. That is to say, the tripping mode number is not necessarily equal to 1. The approximate result by taking only one term of the series will be discussed in Section 6 of the paper.

4. Critical value and effect of lateral pressure If the stiffener is only subjected to lateral pressure, then it will trip when the lateral pressure reaches a certain value in the positive direction as shown in Fig. 3. Tripping of stiffeners under pure lateral pressure can also be analyzed by using the present method. For this purpose, let s=0 in Eq. (10) and the following equation can be reduced. ([A] q[B]({r} {0} (21)

This is also a generalized eigenvalue problem and can be solved in a similar way to that for solving Eq. (10). Now the matrix [B] is tridiagonalized, yielding [B] [LB][LB]T (22)

where [LB] is a tridiagonal matrix. Then the following standard eigenvalue problem can be derived. ([K] q[I]){r} {0} where [K] [LB]T([A])[LB] (24) or det([K] q[I]) 0 (23)

After suitably choosing n, the standard eigenvalue problem can be solved by using the well-established method. Then the smallest eigenvalue obtained is the critical value of the lateral pressure qcr.
Table 1 Critical axial stresses upon tripping sT,E (MPa) for the T stiffener q(N/mm) n=3 error n=5 error n=15 28.52 418.41 4.83% 400.92 0.44% 399.15 21.39 375.14 3.05% 364.86 0.23% 364.03 14.26 331.87 1.51% 327.12 0.09% 326.83 7.13 288.60 0.45% 287.37 0.02% 287.32 0 245.33 0.00% 245.33 0.00% 245.33 7.13 202.06 0.64% 200.80 0.01% 200.78 14.26 158.78 3.27% 153.79 0.03% 153.75 21.39 115.51 10.61% 104.46 0.03% 104.43 28.52 72.24 36.07% 53.10 0.03% 53.09

Y. Hu et al. / Thin-Walled Structures 37 (2000) 126

Table 2 Effect of lateral pressure to the critical axial stress sT,E (MPa) q/qcr sT,E error 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 0.00

432.46 399.15 364.03 326.83 287.32 245.33 200.78 153.75 104.43 53.09 43.27 38.54 32.61 24.94 14.61 0.0 22.19 59.56 134.92 362.92

To investigate the effect of the lateral pressure to the critical axial stress, the example in Section 3 of a T stiffener is considered again. The critical value of the lateral pressure for this stiffener can be obtained by solving the eigenvalue problem of Eq. (23), which is qcr=35.65 N/mm. The critical axial stresses under lateral pressures with different values ranging from q= qcr, to q=qcr are listed in Table 2. In the table, the term error denotes the relative error of the critical stress without lateral pressure to that with the effect of the lateral pressure, that is (sT,E q=0 sT,E q=q)/sT,E q=q. The results are also plotted in Fig. 4. It can be seen from Table 2 and Fig. 4 that when the lateral pressure q is negative or points to the stiffener ange side as shown in Fig. 2, the critical axial stress will increase compared to that without the effect of the lateral pressure. On the other hand it will decrease when the lateral pressure is positive or points to the plate side. The effect of the lateral pressure to the critical axial stress should not be neglected if the absolute value of q is not negligible compared to the critical value qcr. It can also be found that when the lateral pressure is positive, the critical stress sT,E varies almost linearly with the variation of the lateral pressure q. In this case the approximate equation proposed by Adamchak can be applied. The result from Eq. (1) is slightly lower than that from the present method. However, when the

Fig. 4.

Critical stress of the T stiffener under different lateral pressure.

10

Y. Hu et al. / Thin-Walled Structures 37 (2000) 126

lateral pressure is negative and is not very small, the result from Eq. (1) will be higher than that from the present method and the difference can not be neglected. A series of calculations are also carried out for the same T stiffener with different lengths. The results are shown in Fig. 5. In the gure, the abscissa represents the slenderness, a/r, of the stiffener-plate combination, where r is dened by r=I/A. I is the moment of inertia of the cross-section about the axis parallel to the plate and A is the cross-section area of the stiffener-plate combination. Curves of sT,E verses a/r corresponding to q= 20 N/mm, q=0 and q=20 N/mm as well as q= 1qcr and 2 q=1qcr are plotted in the gure. A curve of the critical value of the lateral pressure 2 qcr verses a/r is also plotted in the gure. It can be seen from Fig. 5 that for stiffeners with the same cross-section the critical value of the lateral pressure, qcr, decreases with the increase of the stiffener length. If the lateral pressure is constant, then its effect to the critical axial stress, sT,E, increases with the increase of the stiffener length. This is because the effect of the lateral pressure is basically determined by the ratio q/qcr, and with the increase of the length qcr decreases, leading to the increase of the ratio q/qcr. If q/qcr keeps constant, then the effect of q to sT,E is almost the same for any stiffener length as shown in the gure. Calculation has been carried out for a number of other stiffeners and similar patterns of the effect of the lateral pressure to the critical axial stress have been found.

5. Effects of compressive stress in plate and plate buckling mode The expression for the spring stiffness per unit length of the rotational restraint provided by the plate, kj, in Eq. (7) is derived from the elastic bending of the plate. If the effect of the compressive stress in the plate to the rotational restraint is taken into account and the mode of plate buckling is considered, then determination of kj

Fig. 5. Critical stress of the T stiffener with different length and under different lateral pressure.

Y. Hu et al. / Thin-Walled Structures 37 (2000) 126

11

becomes very complicated. To cope with the compressive stress in the plate, an approximate method has been proposed by Faulkner [25]. The following effective spring stiffness kje is dened to replace the original spring stiffness kj.

kje

kj 1 0

s scr

s scr s scr

(25)

where scr is the elastic buckling stress of the plate, which can be estimated by t 2 m0b a 2 Ep2 (26) 2 12(1n ) b a m0b where m0 is the buckling mode number of the plate. This approximate method has been adopted by many classication societies in their design rules [47]1. By introducing the effective spring stiffness kje into the present method, the elements of the matrix [A] and [C] in Eq. (10) become scr
a a a

EIw,D yIV(z)yi(z) dzGJ yj (z)yi(z) dz+kj yj (z)yi(z) dz j Aij

0 a 0 a 0

s scr (27) s scr

EIw,D yIV(z)yi(z) dzGJ yj (z)yi(z) dz j

0 a 0 a

Ip,D Cij
0 a

kj yj (z)yi(z) dz+ y (z)yi(z) dz scr j

0

s scr (28) s scr

Ip,D yj (z)yi(z) dz
0

In some design rules effective spring stiffness is further dened by

kje

kj 1 0

s scr

s scr s scr

where a equals 1 or 2.

12

Y. Hu et al. / Thin-Walled Structures 37 (2000) 126

Taking the twisting angle as the series form of Eq. (17) for simply supported stiffeners, the following equations for the matrix elements can be obtained. 0 Aij a ip 4 ip 2 +GJ +kj] [EIw,D 2 a a a ip 4 ip 2 [EIw,D +GJ ] 2 a a 0 Cij a ip 2 kj Ip,D + 2 a scr a ip I 2 p,D a
2

i s scr i=j s scr i j s scr i=j s scr

j (29)

(30)

The results for the same T stiffener as in the example of Section 3 from the calculation by adopting the effective rotational spring stiffness are shown in Fig. 6. The results for different stiffener lengths are shown in Fig. 7. From the gures it can be seen that the critical axial stress will be much lower when the effective spring stiffness of Eq. (25) is used than that when the constant spring stiffness of Eq. (7) is used. The reason is that by denition kje is always smaller than kj when there

Fig. 6. The effect of compressive stress in plate and plate buckling mode (different lateral pressure).

Y. Hu et al. / Thin-Walled Structures 37 (2000) 126

13

Fig. 7. The effect of compressive stress in plate and plate buckling mode (different stiffener length).

exists compressive stress in the plate. Especially when the compressive stress reaches the buckling stress, kje= 0, that is to say, no restraint is provided by the plate. Buckling of the plate will occur prior to tripping of the stiffener in most cases. After buckling, one half-wave will form in the transverse direction of the plate and a number of half-waves in the longitudinal direction for the common long plate. The half-waves in the longitudinal direction bend towards opposite side alternately (see Fig. 8). It is reasonable to assume that those half-waves of the plate that bend in the same direction as the rotation of the stiffener, as shown in Fig. 8(A-A), will provide no restraint to the stiffener, while other half-waves that bend in the opposite direction to the rotation of the stiffener, as shown in Fig. 8(B-B), will provide restraint as the elastic plate. Obviously, buckling mode of the plate will affect the tripping behaviour of the stiffener.

Fig. 8. Buckling mode of plate and its effect to tripping of stiffeners.

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Y. Hu et al. / Thin-Walled Structures 37 (2000) 126

An approximate method is used in this paper to take into account the effect of the plate buckling mode. Let the tripping mode number of the stiffener is m and the buckling mode number in the longitudinal direction of the plate is m0. It is assumed in a conservative view of point that if m0/m=1, then no restraint is provided by the whole plate. If m0/m=2, then one-half of the plate provides the restraint. If m0/m=3, then only one-third of the plate provides the restraint. The proportion of the plate that provides the restraint can be deduced by analogy for m0/m 3 and for the cases in which m0/m is not an integer. Accordingly, a deduction factor f can be introduced into Eq. (25), yielding

kje

s kj(1 f) scr kj(1f)

s scr s scr

(31)

where f is dened by

m0 m 1 m0 2 n m0 1+ m m0 2 m

if

m0 is even m (32)

if

m0 is odd m

where [] denotes eliminating decimals of the number. Adopting the effective spring stiffness kje of Eq. (31), the elements of the matrix [A] and [C] in Eq. (10) become Aij
a a

(33)

EIw,D yIV(z)y1(z) dzGJ yj (z)yi(z) dz+kj yj (z)yi(z) dz j

0 a a 0 0 a

s scr

EIw,D yIV(z)yi(z) dzGJ yj (z)yi(z) dz+kj(1f) yj (z)yi(z) dz j

0 0 0

s scr

Y. Hu et al. / Thin-Walled Structures 37 (2000) 126

a a

15

Ip,D Cij
0 a

k jf yj (z)yi(z) dz+ y (z)yi(z) dz scr j

0

s scr (34) s scr

Ip,D yj (z)yi(z) dz
0

For simply supported stiffeners, they are 0 Aij a ip 4 ip 2 +GJ +kj] [EIw,D 2 a a a ip 4 ip 2 +GJ +kj(1f)] [EIw,D 2 a a 0 Cij a ip 2 kjf [Ip,D + ] 2 a scr a ip Ip,D 2 a
2

i j s scr i=j s scr i j s scr i=j s scr (36) (35)

The results for the T stiffener of the example by using the effective rotational stiffness dened by Eq. (31) are also plotted in Figs. 6 and 7. It can be seen from the gures that the critical axial stress is lower than that by using the rotational spring stiffness, kf, of Eq. (7), but it is higher than that using the effective spring stiffness, kfe, of Eq. (25) because the plate will provide a portion of rotational restraint after buckling when the effect of the plate buckling mode is taken into account. Apparently, Eq. (31) is more reasonable than the other two equations. It can also be seen from Fig. 7 that with the effect of the plate buckling mode, the pattern of variation of the critical stress for the same stiffener with different length will become more complex. It should be pointed out that when the effect of the plate buckling mode is taken into account, the relationship between the critical stress and the lateral pressure is not linear. The approximate Eq. (1) will lead to errors (see Fig. 6). 6. Approximate equation and its application in rules If the absolute value of the lateral pressure is not very high, then the cross terms in Eq. (10) can be omitted, leading to an approximate equation of the following form for calculation of the critical axial stress with the effect of the lateral pressure.

16

Y. Hu et al. / Thin-Walled Structures 37 (2000) 126

sT,E
m

min

AmqBmm Cm 1,2,

EIw,D

mp 2 (p2m23) a +GJ+[kj+2qbD ] a 12 mp 2 kjf a Ip,D+ scr mp

(37)

The results for the T stiffener of the example by using this approximate equation and the comparison with those from the method of the paper are shown in Figs. 9 and 10. Further introduced into the approximate equation is an effective rotational spring stiffness in which the effect of the compressive stress in the plate with a more complex pattern as expressed in the footnote of Section 4, and the effect of the lateral bending of the stiffener web (see Appendix B) are also taken into account. The effective rotational spring stiffness is dened as follows. s a f scr kj 4t3d s a 1+ 3 1 f 3twb scr 1 sT a f scr 4t3d sT a 1+ 3 1 f 3twb scr kj 1

kje

(38)

From this the following equation can be derived. 1 Ip,D mp a2

2 2

sT

{EIw,D

GJ

(p2m23) a2 2qbD } 24 m2p2

(39)

Fig. 9.

Results and comparison of the approximate equation for the T stiffener.

Y. Hu et al. / Thin-Walled Structures 37 (2000) 126

17

Fig. 10. Results and comparison of the approximate equation for the T stiffener (different length).

This equation should be solved for sT by iteration. The smallest root of sT is the critical stress, that is sT,E min sT
m 1,2,

(40)

The results for the T stiffener by using Eqs. (39) and (40) with the effect of the lateral bending of the stiffener web are shown in Figs. 11 and 12. It can be seen

Fig. 11.

Effect of stiffener web bending to the critical axial stress for the T stiffener.

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Y. Hu et al. / Thin-Walled Structures 37 (2000) 126

Fig. 12. Effect of stiffener web bending to the critical axial stress for the T stiffener (different length).

from the gures that the critical axial stress will decrease with the effect of the lateral bending of the stiffener web. The amount of decrease is basically not affected by the value of the lateral pressure. Calculation is also made for the same stiffener by taking a=2 . Results show that the critical stress is different from that by taking a=1 only when the critical stress is lower than the buckling stress of the plate, and the difference is very small and can be neglected. To further investigate the effect of the lateral bending of the stiffener web, a series of calculation is carried out for the T stiffener with different web thickness. The results are shown in Fig. 13. It can be found from the gure that the effect of the bending of the stiffener web is signicant only when the ratio tw/d is small or the web is relatively high. It is usually required in design rules that tripping strength be checked for stiffeners under given applied axial stress sapp. That is to say, the applied stress sapp should not exceed the tripping stress sT,E given sapp. For this application, the approximate Eqs. (39) and (40) can be modied by substituting sT on the right side of Eq. (39) by sapp. Then the equation for estimating the tripping stress can be derived as follows. sT,E where, Et3 sapp a 1 f 2 3b(1n ) scr a m EIw,Dp4 sapp a 4t3d 1+ 3 1 f 3twb scr
4

1 Ip,D

EIw,D

p2 2 m m a2 m2

GJ

qbDa2 12

(41)

qbD 4

(42)

and the tripping mode number m (number of half waves) is determined by

Y. Hu et al. / Thin-Walled Structures 37 (2000) 126

19

Fig. 13. Effect of stiffener web bending to the critical axial stress for the T stiffener (different web thickness).

m=1 m=2 m=3 m=k

0 m 4 4 m 36 36 m 144 (k1)2k 2 m k 2(k+1)2 (43)

Compared to the equation in the present rules of the classication societies, the terms related to the lateral pressure q and the reduction factor f are added in Eqs. (41) and (42). The terms related to q represent the effect of the lateral pressure to the tripping stress and the reduction factor f represents the effect of the plate buckling mode. These effects should not be neglected from the discussion in previous sections of the paper.

7. Conclusions 1. Tripping of stiffeners in stiffened panels under combined loads of axial force and lateral pressure is studied in this paper. On the basis of the Vlasovs differential equation for torsional buckling of thin-walled bars, a generalized eigenvalue problem for tripping of stiffeners is derived by using the Galerkins Method. The eigenvalue problem can easily be solved by the existing well-established algorithms. The method developed in the paper can be conveniently applied to tripping of stiffeners under the following load cases:

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axial force only, lateral pressure only, live axial force with dead lateral pressure, live lateral pressure with dead axial force. The method can also easily be extended to the load case of end moment, which is not discussed in the paper. 2. Tripping of stiffeners under combined loads of live axial force and dead lateral pressure is investigated in detail by using the method developed in the paper. The effect of the lateral pressure to the critical axial stress upon tripping is examined. The following conclusions can be drawn from the study. When the lateral pressure is negative or points to the stiffener ange side, the critical axial stress will increase compared to that without the effect of the lateral pressure, while it will decrease when the lateral pressure is positive or points to the plate side. The effect of the lateral pressure to the critical axial stress should not be neglected if the absolute value of the lateral pressure is not negligible compared to the critical value qcr. When the lateral pressure is positive, the critical stress sT,E varies almost linearly with the variation of the lateral pressure q. In this case the approximate Eq. (1) proposed by Adamchak can be applied. The result from Eq. (1) is slightly lower than that from the present method. However, when the lateral pressure is negative and is not very small, the result from Eq. (1) will be higher than that from the present method and the difference can not be neglected. For stiffeners with the same cross-section the critical value of the lateral pressure, qcr, decreases with the increase of the stiffener length. If the lateral pressure is constant, then its effect to the critical axial stress, sT,E, increases with the increase of the stiffener length. This is because the effect of the lateral pressure is basically determined by the ratio q/qcr, and with the increase of the length qcr decreases leading to the increase of the ratio q/qcr. If q/qcr keeps constant, then the effect of q to sT,E is almost the same for any stiffener length. 3. The rotational restraint provided by the plate is considered in the present method. The effective rotational spring stiffness proposed by Faulkner is adopted to account for the effect of the compressive stress in the plate. On this basis, a reduction factor is introduced to take into account the effect of the plate buckling mode. The following conclusions can be drawn from the calculation for an example of a stiffener with T cross-section. Similar conclusions can be obtained from calculations for other stiffeners. The critical axial stress will be much lower when the effective spring stiffness of Eq. (25) is used than that when the constant spring stiffness of Eq. (7) is used. The reason is that by denition kfe is always smaller than kf when there exists compressive stress in the plate. Especially when the compressive stress reaches the buckling stress, no restraint is provided by the plate. The critical axial stress by using the effective rotational spring stiffness with the effects of the compressive stress in the plate and the plate buckling mode is lower than that by using the rotational spring stiffness without any effect of the compressive stress, but it is higher than that using the effective spring

Y. Hu et al. / Thin-Walled Structures 37 (2000) 126

21

stiffness with only the effect of the compressive stress in the plate but without the effect of the plate buckling mode. The reason is that the plate will provide a portion of rotational restraint after buckling when the effect of the plate buckling mode is taken into account. With the effect of the plate buckling mode, the pattern of variation of the critical stress for the same stiffener with different length will become more complex. When the effect of the plate buckling mode is taken into account, the relationship between the critical stress and the lateral pressure is not linear. The approximate Eq. (1) will lead to errors. 4. An approximate equation to estimate the critical axial stress for tripping of stiffeners in stiffened panels is proposed. The effects of the lateral pressure, the compressive stress in the plate and the plate buckling mode are taken into account in the approximate equation. The effect of the lateral bending of the stiffener web is also taken into account. The following conclusions can be drawn from the calculation by using the approximate equation. When the absolute value of the lateral pressure is not very high, the approximate equation can predict the critical axial stress quite accurately. The critical axial stress will decrease with the effect of the lateral bending of the stiffener web. The amount of decrease is basically not affected by the value of the lateral pressure. However, the effect of the lateral bending of the stiffener web is signicant only when the web is relatively high. After some modications, the approximate equation can be applied in design rules for the purpose of checking the tripping strength of the stiffeners. Compared to the equation in the present rules of the classication societies, the terms related to the lateral pressure q representing the effect of the lateral pressure to the tripping stress and the reduction factor f representing the effect of the plate buckling mode are added in the equation. 5. Finally, it should be noted that only elastic tripping of stiffeners is studied in this paper. The method developed in the paper is applied only to estimate the elastic critical stress. In many cases, the calculated elastic critical stress will exceed the elastic limit of the material. Therefore, inelastic tripping should be studied. In this aspect, a widely used simplied method is to estimate the inelastic critical stress of tripping in a similar way to that used for inelastic beam-column buckling. According to the tangent modulus theory, the inelastic critical stress is Et sT,cr= sT,E [2,9,10], where Et is the tangent modulus, which can be obtained from E the OstenfeldBleich parabola. If the method proposed by Faulkner for inelastic Et buckling of plates is adopted, then sT,cr= s [26]. Inelastic tripping of stiffE T,E eners is beyond the scope of this paper and it will not be discussed in detail here. Another point that should be mentioned is that the critical stress obtained by the present method is the stress in the stiffener. It is not the average stress of the stiffenerplate combination. To get the average stress of the stiffener-plate combination, as

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usually required in estimation of the ultimate strength of ship hulls, the concept of effective width of the plate should be employed [9,26]. This will not be discussed in detail in this paper either.

Acknowledgements The authors wish to express their appreciation to the China Classication Society for supporting this research. However, any views in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reect the ofcial views of the CCS.

Appendix A. Denition of sectional properties of thin-walled stiffeners The sectional properties of thin-walled stiffeners in Eq. (3) will be dened in this appendix. Iw,D and Ir,D are the sectorial moment of inertia and the polar moment of inertia of the stiffener cross-section about the axis of rotation, respectively. They are dened by Iw,D Iw (xt xd)2Ix (yt yd)2Iy Ip,D Ax2 Ay2 Ix Iy d d (A1) (A2)

where Iw is the sectorial moment of inertia of the cross-section about the twisting center; Ix and Iy are the moments of inertia of the cross-section about the principal axes; A is the area of the cross-section; xt and yt are the coordinates of the twisting center in the principal coordinate system; xd and yd are the coordinates of the axis of rotation in the principal coordinate system. For open cross-sections such as T or angle, the twisting center is located at the intersection of the walls and the sectorial moment of inertia about the twisting center is equal to zero. J is the torsional moment of inertia of the cross-section, which is dened by J 1 2 1 t dA 3 3
A

lit3 i
i

(A3)

where li and ti are the length and the thickness of the ith wall of the cross-section. The other two sectional properties, bx,D and by,D, are dened by by,D 1 3 [ y dA Ix
A A

x2y dA] 2yd

(A4)

bx,D

1 3 [ x dA Iy
A A

xy2 dA] 2xd

(A5)

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23

Appendix B. Derivation of the effect of lateral bending of stiffener web The rotational spring stiffness per unit length, kj, in Eq. (7) is derived under the assumption that the web of the stiffener is rigid. If the web is high enough, it will bend laterally upon tripping of the stiffener as shown in Fig. 14. In this case, the rotational spring stiffness will be affected by the lateral bending of the stiffener web. Sharp [27] has studied tripping of the lipped anges of channel sections with the effect of the lateral bending of the ange. The method Sharp developed can also be applied to the tripping problem of stiffeners in the stiffened panels. It can be seen from Fig. 14 that the local angle of rotation j1 at the line of attachment of the stiffener to the plate when the web bends laterally is less than the global rotation angle j corresponding to a rigid web. Consider again a plate strip of a width dz with the thickness t, the following relation between the local angle of rotation and the moment can easily be derived. M 4E1i1 Et3 dz j1 b 3b(1n2) where b is the stiffener spacing. E1= i1= (A6) E is the equivalent elastic modulus. 1n2

t3 dz is the moment of inertia of the cross-section of the plate strip. 12 Further consider the analytical model of Fig. 15. The displacement at the topmost point of the web can be determined by the beam theory, which is j1d where iw= Pd 3 4E1i1d 2 j1d j jd 3E1iw 3E1iwb 1 (A7)

t3 dz w is the moment of inertia of the cross-section of the web strip of the 12 width dz. Taking into account Eq. (A6), P can be obtained by equilibrium P M 4E1i1 j d bd 1 (A8)

Fig. 14.

Lateral bending of stiffener web.

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Fig. 15. Analytical model of stiffener web.

Then we get the following relationship between the local angle and global angle of rotation. j 1 4E1i1d j 3E1iwb 1 1 4t3d j 3t3 b 1 w (A9)

From Eq. (A6) and Eq. (A9), the following rotational spring stiffness per unit length with the effect of the lateral bending of the stiffener web can be derived. kj M 1 j dz 1 M Et3 dz 4t3d 4t3d 1+ 3 j1 3b(1n2) 1+ 3 3twb 3twb (A10)

It should be pointed out that Sharps conclusion for the lipped ange of channel sections was directly applied to the case of tripping of stiffeners in the stiffened panels by Hughes in his book [13]. Thus the constant in the parenthesis in the denominator on the right side of Eq. (A10) is 2/3 according to Hughes. This is not correct and the correct value should be 4/3. Eq. (A10) is derived under the assumption that no compressive stress exists in the plate. To account for the effect of the compressive stress in the plate, it is assumed that no restraint is provided by the plate after its buckling and the amount of the restraint decreases linearly or parabolically to zero with the increase of the compressive stress in the plate from zero to the value of the buckling stress of the plate. Therefore, Eq. (A6) becomes M 4E1i1 1 j1 b s scr
a

Et3 dz 1 3b(1n2)

s scr

(A11)

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25

Then, the following effective rotational spring stiffness can be derived without difculty. Et3 1 kje s scr
a

s 4t3d 3b(1n2) 1+ 3 1 3twb scr

(A12)

This expression has been adopted by many classication societies in their design rules [47]. References
[1] Smith CS. Compressive strength of welded steel ship grillages. Trans RINA 1975;117:32547. [2] Adamchak JC. An approximate method for estimating the collapse of a ships hull in preliminary design. In: Proc Ship Structure Symp84. SNAME, Arlington, VA, 1984:3761. [3] Gordo JM, Guedes Soares C, Faulkner D. Approximate assessment of the ultimate longitudinal strength of the hull girder. Journal of Ship Research 1996;40:609. [4] American Bereau of Shipping. Rules for building and classing steel vessels, 1998. [5] Det norske Veritas. Rules for ships, 1998. [6] Germanischer Lloyd. Rules for the classication and construction of seagoing steel ships, 1998. [7] China Classication Society. Rules and regulations for the construction and classication of seagoing steel ships, 1996. [8] Bleich F. Buckling strength of metal structures. New York, USA: McGraw-Hill, 1952. [9] Faulkner D, Adamchak JC, Snyder GJ, Vetter MR. Synthesis of welded grillages to withstand compression and normal loads. Computers and Structures 1973;3:22146. [10] Adamchak JC. Design equations for tripping of stiffeners under inplane and lateral loads. DTNSRDC Report 1979;79/064. [11] Faulkner D. Toward a better understanding of compression induced tripping. In: Narayanan R, editor. Steel structures. London, UK, New York, USA: Elsevier Applied Science, 1987:15975. [12] Faulkner D. Compression strength of welded grillages. In: Evans JH, editor. Ship structural design concepts. Centreville, Maryland, USA: Cornell Maritime Press, 1975. [13] Hughes OF. Ship structural design. New York, USA: John Wiley and Sons, 1983. [14] Danielson DA, Kihl DP, Hodges DH. Tripping of thin-walled plating stiffeners in axial compression. Thin-Walled Structures 1990;10(2):12142. [15] Danielson DA. Analytical tripping loads for stiffened plates. International Journal of Solids and Structures 1995;32(8/9):131928. [16] Smith CS. Bending, buckling and vibration of orthotropic plate-beam structures. Journal of Ship Research 1968;12(4):24968. [17] Wittrick WH. General sinusoidal stiffness matrices for buckling and vibration analysis of thin atwalled structures. Int J of Mechanical Science 1968;10(12):94966. [18] Louca LA, Harding JE. Torsional buckling of outstands in longitudinally stiffened panels. ThinWalled Structures 1996;24(3):21129. [19] Chen Bozhen, Gong Jingen. Lateral buckling of bulkhead stiffeners. China Shipbuilding 1980;1:63 74 (in Chinese). [20] Chen Bozhen, Tang Fengquan. The lateral buckling of horizontal girder or stiffeners of bulkheads. China Shipbuilding 1983;3:5962 (in Chinese). [21] Hughes OF, Ma M. Elastic tripping analysis of asymmetrical stiffeners. Computers & Structures 1996;60(3):36989. [22] Hughes OF, Ma M. Inelastic analysis of panel collapse by stiffener buckling. Computers & Structures 1996;61(1):10717.

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[23] Chen Bozhen, Hu Yuren. Thin-walled Structural Mechanics. Shanghai, China: Shanghai Jiaotong University Press, 1998 (in Chinese). [24] Timoshenko SP, Gere JM. Theory of elastic stability. 2nd ed. New York, USA: McGraw-Hill International, 1961. [25] Smith CS, Faulkner D. Dynamic behaviour of partially constrained ship grillages. The Shock and Vibration Bulletin 40, Part 7. Washington D. C., USA: Naval Research Laboratory, 1969. [26] Gordo JM, Guedes Soares C. Approximate load shortening curves for stiffened plates under uniaxial compression. In: Faulkner D, Cowling MJ, Incecik A, Das PK, editors. Integrity of offshore structures 5. Arly, 1993: EMAS, 1993:189211. [27] Sharp ML. Longitudinal stiffeners for compression members. ASCE Journal of the Structural Division 1966;92(ST5):187211.