Stress Analysis of Circular Frames in a Non-tapering Fuselage

Abstract

SummaryThe problem of the stress analysis of circular fuselage frames has been investigated by a number of authors; the analyses are, necessarily, rather mathematical in nature although in some cases the final results have been presented in extremely practical form. The present paper offers, in non-mathematical language, a short account of the fundamentals of the problem and a brief guide to the more important published literature. It also develops an approximate method for the analysis of frames using Lagrange's method for minimising a function of several inter-dependent variables. This method is shown to be particularly suitable for the analysis of frames with large cut-outs, about which little has previously been published. In addition, the underlying parameters which determine the stress distribution are deduced from the theory, and the deductions are compared with previously published work. In general, agreement is good. The paper is written throughout with a view to being of practical use in the actual stressing of frames. Numerical examples and explanations of mathematical methods are included in Appendices.