Experimental and Numerical Investigation on Buckling and Post-Buckling Behavior of Steel Plates with Circular Cutouts

Research areas:

• Volume 3,Issue 4, Jan. 2015

Year:

2015

Type of Publication:

Article

Keywords:

Buckling, Steel Plates, Cutout, Imperfection

Authors:

Hamed Mehrabi; Mahmoud Shariati; Amin Valizadeh; Yashar Faradjian Mohtaram

Journal:

IJAIM

Volume:

3

Number:

4

Pages:

170-176

Month:

Jan.-Feb.

ISSN:

2320-5121

Abstract:

Steel plates are used in various structures, such as the structures of the deck and body of ships, bridges, and aerospace industry. In many cases, these structures are exposed to axial compression loads, which could lead to buckling. Several Factors can affect the buckling behavior such as: aspect ratio, location and shape of cutouts, initial imperfection, etc. In this study, the buckling and postbuckling behavior of rectangular plates with various numbers of cutouts as well as the effects of imperfection and aspect ratio are studied experimentally and numerically. The experimental tests were carried out by an INSTRON servohydraulic machine and ABAQUS software was considered for numerical simulation. Boundary conditions were clamped supports at upper and lower ends and free supports at other edges. The obtained results show that, the nearer cutouts to the middle of the plate have more influence on the reduction of the buckling load and the movement of the cutouts from the center of the plate along the transversal axis has little effect on the buckling load. Furthermore, with an increase in the length to width ratio, the buckling load decreases considerably. The numerical and experimental methods are in a good agreement to predict the buckling load and the difference in the buckling load obtained from these methods is less than 2% in most cases. Finally, the imperfection has a prominent role in buckling behavior of plates.

Full text: IJAIMIRC-375_final.pdf