The paper investigates the dynamic behaviour of stiffened panels. The coupled differential equations for eccentric stiffening configuration are first derived. Then a semi-analytical procedure for dynamic analysis of stiffened panels is presented. Unlike finite element or finite strip methods, where the plate is discretized into a set of elements or strips, the plate in this procedure is treated as a single element. The potential energy of the structure is first expressed in terms generalized functions that describe the longitudinal and transverse displacement profiles. The resulting non-linear strain energy functions are then transformed into unconstrained optimization problem in which mathematical programming techniques are employed to determine the magnitude of the lowest natural frequency and the associated mode shape for pre-selected plate/stiffener geometric parameters. The described procedure is verified with other numerical methods for several stiffened panels. Results are then presented showing the variation of the natural frequency with plate/stiffener geometric parameters for various stiffening configurations.