Buckling Behaviour of Composite Laminated Corrugated Panel with Sinusoidal Profile Part 1: Equivalent Stiffness Terms

Abstract：This paper deals with equivalent stiffness techniques, as a corrugated panel is approximated by an anisotropic plate. The extending classical laminate theory is applied to the cross section of a corrugated plate with sinusoidal profile. The membrane, bending and membrane-bending coupling stiffness terms of a corrugated plate are derived in the form of analysis formulas. The accuracy of the formulas is validated through test data of a composite wing box with corrugated spar webs. It is found that relative errors of computational results vs. test gauge results are less than 6 % as the formulas are used to obtain the equivalent stiffness terms. The results show encouraging agreement.