A Collapse Surface for a Perforated Plate With an Equilateral Triangular Array of Penetrations

Abstract

A collapse surface is developed for use in limit-load analysis of plates containing a large number of small circular penetrations arranged in an equilateral triangular array of holes with a ligament efficiency of 0.31733. The collapse surface is obtained by calculating the limit load for a unit cell model of the penetration pattern using a three-dimensional elastic-perfectly plastic [EPP] finite element analysis [FEA] computer program. The EPP response from incipient yielding to plastic collapse for the unit cell is obtained for a sufficient number of load cases to define the complete collapse surface. The collapse surface is expressed analytically by using a fourth-order function that incorporates the periodicity dictated by the triangular hole pattern. The coefficients of the fourth-order function were obtained by statistically fitting the collapse surface generated by the EPP-FEA results. The resulting collapse surface was shown to be appropriate for development of an EPP-EQS theory for perforated plates. The analytic surface agrees to within 7 percent of the actual collapse surface obtained by EPP-FEA of the unit cell representing the penetration.