In the design of a stressed skin metal airplane it is essential that correct stiffener stresses and effective widths of skin acting with the stiffener be known in order to insure that fictitious margins of safety in wing and fuselage analyses are not shown. In this paper the problem of determining these stresses and effective widths is discussed and some experimental results from Lockheed tests are presented. An experimental method is described which makes possible the accurate determination of these quantities, employing extensometer strain data interpreted by means of a compression stress-strain curve for the stiffener. NOMENCLATURE t s = Skin thickness (inches). PT = Total panel load in lbs. (TST = Stiffener stress in lbs. per sq.in. AST = Stiffener area in sq.in. b = Stiffener spacing (inches). n = Number of equal bays in test panel. W e -Total effective width of skin on test panel (inches). w e = Half the total effective width acting with each stiffener (inches). L = Panel length (inches). X = \/E/
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