This paper deals with the nonlinear dynamic response of elastically supported stiffened plates with initial stresses under impact loads. A stiffened plate is assumed to be composed of a plate with some stiffeners, which are treated separately. The plate is modeled by the thin plate theory, whereas the stiffeners are considered as geometrically nonlinear Euler–Bernoulli beams. First, the equations of both the kinetic energies and strain energies of the plate and stiffeners are established. Then, the dynamic equilibrium equations for the stiffened plate are derived as the Lagrange’s equation of the functional. A parametric analysis is performed to evaluate how initial stresses, initial geometric imperfections, elastic supports, impact loads and configuration of stiffeners affect the time-history responses of the stiffened plates. Some useful nonlinear dynamic properties are obtained, which serve as references for engineering design and application.
