Postbuckling Behavior of GLARE Under Shear: Computations and Experiments

Conventional aircraft fuselages are customary designed to exploit shear postbuckling capabilities of stiffened panels for weight savings. This design method can be applied only once the initial buckling can be controlled and no plastic deformations or local failures occur. This work presents a numerical-experimental investigation of the buckling behavior of Glare under shear. A Wagner's web was expressively used to test couples of Glare flat panels with free length of 240 mm. Glare 3-3/2 panels were considered. Detailed non-linear finite element analyses were a-priori performed both using implicit and explicit solvers available in the commercial code ABAQUS. Preliminary experimental tests are then presented. During the buckling tests, a set of strain-gauges located on the Glare panels was used to precisely identify the first buckling load while the out-of-plane deformations were monitored by using the Moirè fringes technique. Finally, numerical computations and tests are compared and discussed with respect to the first buckling load, the post-buckling patterns as well as with respect to the equilibrium path and the measured strain values.