Influence of post-buckling behaviour on optimum design of stiffened panels

For an eccentrically stiffened wide panel under compression the optimality of a design with simultaneous occurrence of buckling as a wide Euler column and local buckling of the plate between the stiffeners is investigated. The total amount of material per unit width of the panel is prescribed. As a function of the distribution of this material in the plate and the stiffeners the maximum carrying capacities are calculated approximately by application of Galerkin's method. The design with the highest carrying capacity and the design with the best ability to retain axial stiffness, corresponding to given imperfections, are determined. It is shown that imperfections move the optimum away from the coincident buckling mode design.