Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MECHANICS AND MATERIALS IN DESIGN, cilt.22, sa.12, ss.1-15, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
An optimal design study is presented for a stiffened pultruded cable tray beam manufactured from carbon fiber-reinforced epoxy with a 55% fiber volume fraction, subjected to a uniformly distributed transverse load. The objective is to determine the optimal stiffener thickness at the side sections to achieve weight-efficient structural performance. Design constraints include limits on deflection, material failure, and buckling, and the associated structural problem is solved using an 8-noded degenerated shell finite element model. First, the mechanical properties of the composite material are derived analytically, and a mesh convergence study is conducted for the unstiffened tray configuration. In the subsequent optimization phase, the optimal stiffener thicknesses are determined for selected geometries while maintaining a constant structural weight. Comparative results show that the stiffened design achieves approximately a 70% increase in load-carrying capacity relative to the unstiffened configuration of equal weight. Furthermore, the findings indicate that increasing the height of the side sections leads to more structurally efficient and economical designs.