An extended layerwise/solid-element method of stiffened composite plates with delaminations and transverse crack

The stiffened composite plates with the transverse crack and delamination were studied in this paper, and an extended layerwise/solid-element (XLW/SE) method was developed. In the proposed method, the governing equations of composite plates and stiffeners were established based on the extended layerwise method and 3D solid elements, respectively. The final governing equation of stiffened composite plates is assembled by using the compatibility conditions and internal force equilibrium conditions at the joint interface between the plates and stiffeners. For the stiffened composite plates with damages, the XLW/SE method can obtain the local stress and displacement fields accurately and simulate the in-plane transverse cracks and delaminations simultaneously, considering complicated stiffeners without any assumptions. In the numerical examples, the results obtained by the proposed method are compared with those obtained by the 3D elastic models developed in the general finite element code, and the good agreements were achieved for the stiffened composite plates with/without delaminations and/or transverse crack.