This research work aims to investigate the deformation and stress pattern of plates with various types of stiffeners. The analysis has been carried out using Finite Element Analysis. ANSYS software has been used. Structures consisting of thin plates stiffened by a system of ribs have found wide application for aircraft, ships, bridges, and buildings as well as in many other branches of contemporary structural engineering. The analytical investigations of stiffened plates are rarely found in literature; hence it is found apt to carry out such investigations to provide design recommendations. The finite element analysis has been carried out for an isotropic rectangular plate by considering the master element as a shell 3D 4node 181 element and beam 2node 188 as a stiffener. Comparison has been done between the results obtained from ANSYS simulation and theoretical procedure to verify the approach. During the analysis the optimal thickness, loading and boundary conditions of the plate are kept constant and the cross section of the stiffener was varied. Effectiveness of various cross section of stiffeners were studied.