Geometric Analysis by Constructal Design of Stiffened Steel Plates Under Bending with Transverse I-Shaped or T-Shaped Stiffeners

Several stiffened plates arrangements subjected to bending were configured applying the Constructal Design Method (CDM) and solved by Finite Element Method (FEM), aiming through the Exhaustive Search (ES) technique analyze the influence of transverse I-Shaped or T-Shaped stiffeners in mechanical behavior. Considering a non-stiffened plate as reference and maintaining the total steel volume constant, a portion of the reference plate was deducted from its thickness, and transformed into stiffeners through the Ǿ volume fraction parameter, which represents the ratio between the steel volume of the stiffeners and the steel volume of the reference plate. Assuming Ǿ = 0.3, 25 plates with just I-Shaped stiffeners in longitudinal and transverse directions and 25 plates with I-Shaped stiffeners in longitudinal direction and T-Shaped stiffeners in transverse direction were proposed. The results showed that the plates with transverse T-Shaped stiffeners are more effective, reducing the maximum von Mises stress and maximum deflection, respectively, in up to more than 60% and 50% when compared with the plates with just I-Shaped stiffeners.