Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2016
A theory of primary failure of compression panels of integral construction with unflanged stiffeners is presented, involving rotation, or translation, or rotation and translation of the stiffeners with the corresponding distortion of the sheet without deformation of the cross sections in their own planes. The investigation shows that the failure may occur generally either by pure torsion of the stiffener with the associated lateral distortion of the sheet or by pure flexure in accordance with whichever mode yields a smaller stress. The theory is compared with the test results covering a fairly wide range of the dimensions involved. The theory is in complete agreement with the experiments. The accuracy of the result thus obtained indicates that the fillets at the junction of the skin and the stiffener are not important and their effects may safely be disregarded.