TRANSIENT DYNAMIC-RESPONSE OF ARBITRARY STIFFENED SHELLS BY THE FINITE-ELEMENT METHOD

Stiffened plates and shells often find wide application in bridge engi neering, aircraft, ship and allied industries owing to its high streng th to weight ratios. They are often subjected to dynamic loading such as air blast loading, for which detailed dynamic analysis is required to study the structure under these conditions. In the present approach , the dynamic response of stiffened plates and shells has been investi gated by the finite element method employing a high precision arbitrar y-shaped triangular shell element in which stiffeners may lie in any a rbitrary direction within the element. This provides greater flexibili ty in the mesh generation. The governing undamped equations of motion have been solved by Newmark's method for direct time integration. The dynamic response of plates and shells with or without stiffeners, subj ected to different kinds of load-history have been studied and results are compared with the published analytical results.