Buckling/ultimate strength and progressive collapse behaviour comparison of unstiffened and stiffened curved plates subjected to axial compression

Abstract

A ship structure is basically an assembly of stiffened panel elements and an estimation of the maximum load carrying capacity. The ultimate strength of these members is of the highest importance task for the safety assessment and rational design of the structure. In general, cylindrically curved unstiffened and stiffened plates are often used in ship structures, for example at deck plating with a camber, side shell plating at fore and aft parts and bilge circle part. It has been known that curvature increases the buckling strength of a plate subjected to axial compression, and is expected to increase also the ultimate strength. In the present paper, to clarify and examine the fundamental buckling and progressive collapse behaviours of unstiffened and stiffened curved plates subjected to axial compressive load, a series of elastic and elastoplastic large deflection analyses are performed applying non-linear FEM codes, ULSAS and ANSYS. On the basis of the numerical results, influences of curvature, magnitude of initial deflection, slenderness ratio and aspect ratio on the characteristics of the buckling/ultimate strength and progressive collapse behaviour of unstiffened and stiffened curved plates under axial compression are discussed.