VOL. 9, NO.

4, APRIL 2014 ISSN 1819-6608

ARPN Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences
2006-2014 Asian Research Publishing Network (ARPN). All rights reserved.

www.arpnjournals.com

EFFECT OF RIBS AND STRINGER SPACINGS ON THE WEIGHT

OF AIRCRAFT COMPOSITE STRUCTURES
Arunkumar K. N.1 and Lohith N.2
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vidyavardhaka College of Engineering, Mysore, India
2
Advanced Composites Division, National Aerospace Laboratories, Bangalore, India
E-Mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACT
Low cost and less weight are the two primary objectives of any Aircraft structure. Efficient design of Aircraft
components is therefore required to reduce cost and weight. For components with compressive loading, ribs and stringer
spacing and stringer cross-section play a major role for weight efficient design. The main objective of the present work is
aimed at establishing optimum stringer and rib spacing and stringer cross-section for minimum weight of buckling design
driven components using FEA. The problem is formulated with flat skin-stringer and skin-stringer-rib panels with
different stringer cross sections viz. blade, hat, I and J. Parametric studies are executed with different stringer spacings, rib
spacings and stringer cross sections to study the effect of these parameters on the weight of the structure using Composite
(T800class+epoxy system) material through linear buckling analysis of the FE model. Simply supported boundary
conditions are used on all four edges of the plate with compressive loading. The software tools used are Hypermesh as pre
and post processor and Radioss as solver. Initially for all the stringer cross sections considered, stringer spacing is varied
from 600mm to 50mm. It is found that the spacing below 120mm is stabilizing the weight. Too small a spacing will
increase the number of stringers with issues in fabrication without much benefit in terms of weight. With this view point,
two stringer spacing configurations viz. 150mm and 120mm are considered for further study on the rib spacing for each of
the stringer cross sections stated earlier. Optimum stringer spacing, rib spacing and stringer cross sections are established
quantitatively.

Keywords: aircraft, composite, buckling, FEM, stringer spacing, rib spacing, stringer cross section.

1. INTRODUCTION comes from the fact that the solution for this kind of a
It is always a challenge to design weight efficient problem through mathematical optimization becomes
aircraft structures and more so in case of composite highly complicated. Also it can be seen from the literature
structures with added material complexities. Compressive survey that the mathematical optimization is done for a
loaded structural members like wing top skin are designed fixed configuration of stringer spacing by treating only the
to prevent both crushing failure and buckling failure. The skin and the stringer thicknesses as design variables 2, 3,
buckling strength of a plate depends on the geometry of 4, 5. No literature is found with respect to rib spacing
the plate and also the boundary conditions. It is largely in studies.
practice that for stiffened panels with stringers and ribs,
simply supported boundary conditions are assumed. 2. PROBLEM DEFINITION
Therefore the geometry of the stiffened panel is what
matters in increasing the buckling strength and hence 2.1. Geometry selection, loading and boundary
demand for efficient geometrical arrangement like the condition
stringer spacing, rib spacing and stringer cross sections for Typically in Aircraft structures, the stringer
weight efficient design. But in practice, the design spacing adopted is in the range from 100 to 200mm and
optimum spacing and cross section of stringer may not be rib spacing used is around 300 to 500mm. For skin-
feasible from manufacturing point of view. Also the stringer panel, a plate width of 600 mm is considered for
selection of these parameters is of paramount importance the study of stringer spacing. The length dimension of the
in the initial phases of structural design, as this will have plate is fixed at 300 mm which is nothing but the typical
the influence throughout the life of the aircraft in terms of rib spacing. For study of skin-stringer-rib panel, the
complexity of the structure, weight and cost. width of the plate is kept equal to the previous case i.e.
The current study is emphasized upon arriving at 600 mm. Plate length of 2000 mm is considered for
optimum spacing of ribs and stringers and stringer cross studying the rib spacing. A compressive load of magnitude
section for minimum weight of buckling design driven 2000N/mm is applied which accounts to a total load of
components, respecting the manufacturing constraints for 1.2x106N for a 600mm width plate as shown in Figure-1.
a feasible design and thus forming a guide line for the Simply supported boundary conditions on all four sides of
selection of these parameters at the initial phases of the plate are considered. The stringer cross sections
structural design process. The present objective is met by considered for the study are shown in Figure-2.
linear static and buckling analysis of skin-stringer and
skin-stringer-rib panels using FEM packages through
parametric studies. The motivation for this approach

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 VOL. 9, NO. 4, APRIL 2014 ISSN 1819-6608
ARPN Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences
2006-2014 Asian Research Publishing Network (ARPN). All rights reserved.

www.arpnjournals.com

2.2. Material 300

T800 class carbon fiber+epoxy system is selected
as the material for the present study. The properties used
for this material in the analysis are E11 = 150GPA, E22 =
9GPa, G12 = 4GPa, 12 = 0.35, XT = 1200MPa, XC =
725MPa, YT = YC = 25MPa, S = 51MPa, = 1.6gm/cc and 600
Ply thickness = 0.18mm. 2000N/mm 2000N/mm

2.3. Problem formulation and solution procedure

The problem is formulated as a 2D problem
numerically using FEM packages. Hypermesh is used as
the pre- and post-processor and Radioss as the solver. FE
model is created using 2-dimensional quad elements. Figure-1. Loading on the plate
Composite material property is assigned using PCOMP
property card and M8 material card. Simply supported 2.4. Convergence study
boundary conditions are applied on all four sides of the Convergence study in carried out for optimum
plate i.e. Z is constrained on all the edges of the plate. element size to be used in the FE models. The study is
Compressive load is applied on one edge and X is performed only on the skin-stringer panel and is assumed
constrained on all the nodes of the opposite edge of the valid on skin-stringer-rib panels also. From Figure-8, it is
plate and Y is constrained on the middle node of this seen that the weight is almost constant for element sizes
edge. FE models of stringer alone configuration and between 5 to 20 mm for different stringer spacing and
strnger-rib configuration are shown in Figure-3 and hence an element size of 10 to 20 mm is adopted in all the
Figure-4, respectively. models.
Tsai Hill composite failure theory8 is used for
composite failure index, which is given by: 30 15

(1) 30
30 t t
a value of F<1 indicating no failure of the laminate.
The governing differential equation for buckling of a 20
symmetric laminate subjected to in-plane loading is given Blade Hat
by13.
30 30

t t
30 30
(2)

For buckling strength of the panel, the following

15
Eigen value problem is solved.
I J
[K+KG] = 0 (3) Figure-2. Stringer cross-sections.
In the above equation, for the lowest eigenvalue
() > 1, the panel is free from buckling.
Initially the plate alone is subjected to buckling
analysis by monitoring the buckling factor so as to keep its
value close to 1 by varying the thickness of the plate. The
flow chart of the analysis procedure is shown in Figure-5.
Subsequently the procedure is repeated by adding the
stringers (reduced spacing) and monitoring the weight and
composite failure index. For skin-stringer-rib panel study,
the procedure is repeated by adding the ribs for a chosen
stringer spacing configuration. Figure-6 shows the
buckling pattern of mode 1, i.e. m=1 and n=1 and Figure-7
shows the buckling contour of the plate for blade stringer
configuration. Figure-3. FE model for plate with stringer.

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 VOL. 9, NO. 4, APRIL 2014 ISSN 1819-6608
ARPN Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences
2006-2014 Asian Research Publishing Network (ARPN). All rights reserved.

www.arpnjournals.com

Figure-4. FE model for plate with stringer and ribs.

Static Stress and Buckling analysis

Figure-8. Weight v/s element size for blade stringer.

Check for
Buckling factor 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Before conducting studies of stringer spacing, rib
spacing and stringer cross sections, it is extremely
If 1 If =1 important to identify other parameters which may affect
the end result and select them appropriately to get reliable
results. The following parameters are identified as the
Change Tabulate Weight critical ones and are evaluated to quantify them
Thickness and Failure index appropriately for further studies.

1. Lay-up sequence
Figure-5. Flow chart of analysis. 2. Stringer thickness variation with respect to plate
thickness
3. Stringer height
4. Stringer web width of hat stringer

3.1. Lay-up sequence

It is a practice and also a rule in design of
composite structures to orient more layers in primary
loading direction to exploit the directional properties of
composites. Also the lay-up sequence will be symmetric
and balanced about the mid-layer in order to minimize the
Figure-6. Buckling pattern of mode 1. coupling terms. The important point to be noted here is
that we are looking at buckling strength of a plate and
therefore the stiffness requirement in all the directions will
be important instead of only in the primary loading
direction. To quantify this, the following lay-up sequences
are selected for the study.
a) 40 - 50%: 450, 10 - 20%:900 and remaining 00 plies
b) Equal no of 450, 900, and 00 plies - quasi-isotropic
laminate

First lay-up sequence is loading direction

dominant lay-up sequence wherein, 00 layer accounts for
Figure-7. Buckling contour of mode 1. almost 50% of the laminate thickness. The percentage of
plies is chosen based on the guidelines of composite
laminate design. Second one is quasi-isotropic lay-up
wherein the stiffness of the laminate is same in all the four
directions.
Study on comparison of lay-up sequence is
carried out for the blade stringer only. The stringer
thickness is kept equal to skin thickness. Weight of the
stiffened panel is monitored at critical buckling load.

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ARPN Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences
2006-2014 Asian Research Publishing Network (ARPN). All rights reserved.

www.arpnjournals.com

Graph of Weight is plotted against no of stringers for

various stringer spacing for the two cases (a) and (b) in
Figure-9.
Quasi-isotropic laminate is found to be
marginally efficient than the other especially at higher
stringer spacing, in terms of minimum weight. Therefore
quasi-isotropic laminate is used for further studies.

Figure-10. Weight v/s no. of stringers for various

stringer thicknesses for blade stringer.

3.2.2. Hat stringer

Hat stringer is different geometrically, compared
to other stringer cross sections that it has two webs unlike
others. To establish the web thickness w.r.t skin thickness,
Figure-9. Weight v/s no. of stringers for different two cases are studied viz. equal to plate thickness and 0.5
lay-up sequence. times the plate thickness for critical buckling factor.
Weight is found minimum for stringer thickness
3.2. Stringer thickness variation with respect to plate = 0.5* plate thickness as seen from Figure-11. Therefore
thickness stringer thickness = 0.5*plate thickness for hat stringer is
Stringer basically supports the skin in buckling considered for further studies on stringer height variation.
and hence should have sufficient stiffness to do so. Too
small a thickness of the stringer may not increase the
buckling strength of the skin considerably and too large a
thickness may result in weight penalty. Therefore it is
logical to establish the relation between skin thickness and
the stringer thickness. The studies are carried out on both
blade and hat stringers as below to establish the relations.

3.2.1. Blade stringer

The stringer thickness is varied as 0.75, 1, 1.25,
1.5, and 1.75 times the plate thickness for different
stringer spacing. Weight for all the cases at the critical
buckling factor i.e. at =1 is established.
From Figure-10 it can be seen that decreased
spacing (increased no of stringers) decreases the weight of Figure-11. Weight v/s no. of stringers for various
the structure for all the five cases of stringer thickness. It stringer thicknesses for hat stringer.
is also evident that the weight is minimum for stringer
thickness equal to plate thickness as compared to the other 3.3. Effect of stringer height
cases. For further studies on blade stringer, thickness is The stringer height will also have a considerable
kept equal to skin thickness. effect in increasing the buckling strength of the panel. The
As I and J stringers also have a single web as in following studies are carried out for blade and hat
blade stringer, the thickness for these stringer cross stringers.
sections are also kept equal to skin thickness for studies on
spacing and cross sections. 3.3.1. Blade stringer
By taking stringer thickness equal to plate
thickness, height of the blade stringer is varied as 25 mm,
30 mm, 32 mm, 35 mm, 37 mm and 40 mm for two cases
of stringer spacing viz. 150mm and 120mm. Weight for all
the cases at the critical buckling load is monitored.

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ARPN Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences
2006-2014 Asian Research Publishing Network (ARPN). All rights reserved.

www.arpnjournals.com

and buckling studies are performed for different stringer

cross sections stated earlier viz. blade, hat, I and J. The
stringer cross section is expected to influence the weight
of the buckling design driven components because of their
differences in bending and torsional capabilities. Weight
of the skin-stringer panel is monitored for different
stringer cross sections at the critical buckling factor, =1.
While the buckling factor is kept close to 1, the composite
failure index is also monitored so as to facilitate prediction
of potential crushing failure of the laminate.
From the results for different stringer cross
sections at the critical buckling load, the graph of weight is
Figure-12. Weight v/s height for various stringer plotted against no. of stringers in Figure-14. Figure-15
spacing for blade stringer. shows the plot of composite failure index with number of
stringers.
From Figure-12 it is evident that weight is
minimum and is almost constant for stringer heights
varying from 30mm to 37mm. Stringer height of 30 mm is
considered for further studies on stringer cross sections
and stringer spacings.
For I and J section stringers also, the height of the
stringer is kept at 30mm.

3.3.2. Hat stringer

By taking stringer thickness equal to 0.5*plate
thickness, height of the hat stringer is varied as 25 mm, 30
mm, 35 mm, 40 mm, 45 mm and 50 mm for two cases of
stringer web width viz. 10mm and 20mm and two cases of
stringer spacing viz. 120mm and 150mm. Weight for all
the cases at critical buckling load is monitored.
From Figure-13 it is clear that weight is
minimum for stringer height (web height) equal to 30mm.
Further, the weight is minimum for web width equal to Figure-14. Weight v/s no. of stringers for different
20mm compared to 10mm. Therefore stringer height of stringer cross sections.
30mm and web width of 20mm are considered for further
studies on stringer cross sections and stringer and rib
spacing.

Figure-15. Composite failure index v/s no of stringers

for different stringer cross sections.

Figure-13. Weight v/s height for various stringer From Figure-14, it can be seen that decreased
spacing for hat stringer. spacing (increasing no of stringers) decreases the weight
of the structure. Also the weight starts stabilizing for
3.4. Effect of different stringer cross section stringer spacing below 120mm.
With the major parameters influencing the From Figure-15, it is evident that the CFI goes
buckling strength of the stiffened panel established beyond 1, as the spacing becomes less than 85mm. Also
quantitatively for their optimum values, the static strength

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ARPN Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences
2006-2014 Asian Research Publishing Network (ARPN). All rights reserved.

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the CFI is close to 1 for stringer spacing between 150mm configuration, the rib spacing has to be as low as 285mm
and 85mm at buckling factor equal to 1. to stabilize the weight. The above differences can be
But for stringer spacing below 100mm, though there attributed to the fact that the loading considered here is
is not much benefit in terms of weight as can be seen from only a compression loading. The buckling strength for
the graph, there are additional complexities in fabrication pure compression loading is majorly influenced by the
viz. flexural rigidity of the stringer cross sections. I and J
stringers are having higher flexural strength because of
More number of stringers means more number of additional flanges at the extremities followed by Hat and
tools required for fabrication Both of these basically Blade stringers. Perhaps for a shear buckling strength, hat
increase the man- hours required and additional stringer may turn out to be more efficient than the other
complexities for detail design because of less space cross sections because of its higher torsional stiffness.
available between the stringers
More cost and time for design and fabrication because
of the complexities.

Based on the above quoted reasons two

economical stringer spacings both in terms of minimum
weight and fabrication aspect viz. 150 mm (5 stringers)
and 120 mm (6 stringers) are selected as the design cases
for rib spacing studies.

3.5. Stringer-rib configuration

In the parametric studies for rib spacing also, all
four different stringer cross sections are considered.
Figure-16. Weight v/s no. of ribs for different rib
3.5.1. Effect of rib thickness with respect to plate thickness.
thickness
The rib thickness is varied with respect to plate
thickness by taking rib thickness equals 0.25, 0. 5, 0.75,
and 1.0 times the plate thickness for stringer spacing of
120mm and 150mm. The weight for all the cases at the
critical buckling factor is monitored.
From Figure-16, it can be seen that rib thickness
equals 0.5*plate thickness has the minimum weight
compared to the other three cases and hence is considered
for further studies on ribs spacing.

3.5.2. Effect of ribs spacing

For stringer spacings of 120 mm and 150 mm,
ribs are added in succession to study the effect of ribs
spacing and arrive at the optimum spacing. Plots of weight Figure-17. Weight v/s no of ribs for different stringer
v/s no. of ribs and CFI v/s no. of ribs are shown in Figure- cross-section for stringer spacing=150mm.
17, Figure-18 and Figure-19, Figure-20, respectively at
critical buckling factor.
From Figure-17 and Figure-18, similar trend is
seen as was the case with the stringer spacing i.e.
decreased spacing (increasing no of ribs) decreases the
weight of the structure. The weight is minimum for
stringer configuration of 120mm spacing as compared to
150 mm spacing configuration. The CFI value is also
below 1 indicating a non-failure of the laminate in all the
cases as observed in Figure-19 and Figure-20.
For I and J stringer configuration, the rib spacing
below 400mm stabilizes the weight of the structure and
thus can be considered as the optimum rib spacing. For hat
stringer configuration, the optimum rib spacing is 330mm
as the rib spacing below this is not helping in reducing the
weight; on the contrary it is increasing the complexity of
Figure-18. Weight v/s no of ribs for different stringer
the structure with more number of ribs. For blade stringer
cross-section for stringer spacing=120mm.

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2006-2014 Asian Research Publishing Network (ARPN). All rights reserved.

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Structures. Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg,

Dec.

[2] Z.B. Zabinsky, M.E. Tuttle and G.I. Kim. 1993.

Optimal design of a composite structure. University of
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[3] Richard D. Young and Zafer Gurdal. Importance of

Anisotropy on Design of Compressive-Loaded
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[4] Yung-Seak Shin. 1993. Optimal design of stiffened

Figure-19. CFI v/s no of ribs for different stringer laminated plates using a homotopy method. KSME
cross-section for stringer spacing=150mm. Journal. Vol. 7.

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Design of Composite Structures. Journal of Composite
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[6] T.H.G. Megson. 1972. Aircraft Structures for

engineering students. 3rd Edition. Butterwork
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[7] Surya N. Patnaik and Dale A. 2003. Hopkins -

Strength of Materials: A Unified Theory, 21st Century,
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Figure-20. CFI v/s no of ribs for different stringer [8] Robert M. Jones. 1997. Mechanics of Composite
cross-section for stringer spacing=150mm. Materials. Edwards Brother (Ann Arbor, MI).
4. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS [9] Airframe Structural Design, Text book by Michel
Parametric studies on stringer spacing, stringer Chun-Yung Niu.
cross section and ribs spacing are carried out to arrive at
the optimum values of these parameters. The following [10] Edmund Corona. 2006. Aerospace Structures.
parameters are considered optimum design parameters for Department of Aerospace and Mechanical
weight efficient design and relatively less complex Engineering, University of Notre Dame, August 9.
structure.
[11] Warren C. Youngrichard and G. Budynas. 1989.
For blade stringer, stringer thickness must be equal to Roarks Formulas for Stress and Strain. 7th Edition.
plate thickness McGraw Hill Publications, London, UK.
For hat stringer, stringer thickness must be 0.5*plate
thickness. [12] Tirupathi R. Chandrapatla and Ashok D. Belagundu.
Stringer height of 30mm is efficient for both blade and 2000. Introduction to Finite Element in Engineering.
hat stringers. Prentice Hall of India private limited, New Delhi,
Stringer spacing below 120mm is optimum in terms of India.
weight efficient structure. But spacing below 100mm
is uneconomical because of complexity of the [13] M.H. Datoo. 1991. Mechanics of Fibrous composites,
structure due to more number of parts without any Elsevier Science Publishers Ltd., London, UK.
benefit in terms of weight. Therefore a stringer
spacing around 120mm is economical in terms of
weight, complexity and cost.
The optimum rib spacing is around 400mm for I and J
stringers, 330mm for Hat stringer and 285mm for
Blade stringers for weight efficient structure.

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