ECCM16 - 16 TH EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON COMPOSITE MATERIALS, Seville, Spain, 22-26 June 2014 1 CHARACTERIZATION OF FIBER-REINFORCED STIFFENER PROFILES FOR AIRCRAFT FUSELAGE PRELIMINARY STRUCTURAL DESIGN J. Krieglsteiner a* , P. Horst a , C. Schmidt b a Tech. Universität Braunschweig, IFL – Institute of Aircraft Design and Lightweight Structures b Leibniz Universität Hannover, IFW – Institute of Production Engineering and Machine Tools *j.krieglsteiner@tu-braunschweig.de Keywords: structural design, composite material, aircraft fuselage design Abstract This paper presents a characterization module for stiffener profiles. It is part of a modeling and analysis tool for stiffened structures in aircraft fuselage design. The module offers options to determine mechanical characteristics of a given section such as mass, stiffness, and failure loads for strength and local stability. For the characterization, analytical approaches and the Finite Element Method (FEM) are used. Both ways are presented and the results are compared as part of the verification of the module. Furthermore, how the module can be used for a basic comparison of design concepts is described. Symbols A mm² area E N/mm² Young’s modulus F N force G N/mm² shear modulus M Nmm moment EA N extensional stiffness GA N shear stiffness GI Nmm² torsional stiffness EI Nmm² bending stiffness ES Nmm elastic moment l mm beam length m kg/mm mass per length r mm perpend. distance to ce rot rad rotational displacement s mm length of profile section u mm translational displacement y mm coordinate (ce system) z mm coordinate (ce system) η mm coordinate (origin system) ζ mm coordinate (origin system) ρ kg/mm³ density Indices 0 initial condition cg center of gravity ce center of elasticity cs shear center i iteration variable x,y,z x-,y-,z- axis of coordinate system crit critical ana analytical sim simulation stab stability stren strength