Composite hat-stiffened panels are widely used in civil aircraft structural design as typical closed-section stiffened components with high load-carrying efficiency. To accurately predict the post-buckling bearing capacity and optimize the tapered termination design of such panels, this paper investigates the failure process of composite hat-stiffened panels with tapered ends through physical modeling and numerical analysis. A nonlinear failure analysis model is established by introducing the failure mechanisms of adhesive interfaces and composite laminates. The modeling method is verified against experimental results, showing discrepancies of 2.7% for buckling load and 3.5% for post-buckling failure load, respectively. Based on the validated numerical approach, parametric studies are carried out to analyze the effects of termination taper parameters on buckling and post-buckling mechanical behaviors. The results indicate that the termination taper design effectively adjusts the stiffness matching between stiffeners and skin and relieves local stress concentration. The optimal taper angle of 120◦ is recommended, where the failure load increases by 22% to 141.8 kN compared to the baseline configuration, significantly improving its post-buckling load-carrying capacity. The findings of this study can provide technical references for the design of stiffened composite panels with tapered stringer terminations in aerospace engineering.
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