Dynamic buckling experiments for stiffened panels under falling hammer impact

Abstract

Stiffened panels are the fundamental elements in marine structures to withstand external dynamic loads, such as bow slamming and collision impact. However, the dynamic buckling of stiffened panels under hammer impact has not been widely studied. In this paper, the stiffened panels are chosen as the study object. Firstly, the ultimate capacity and failure modes are investigated by a static experiment under longitudinal compression. Then, a series of impact experiments on stiffened panels of the same scantlings under various failing hammer velocities are designed to find the critical dynamic buckling state. A new criterion of dynamic buckling evaluation is proposed based on the fitted curve of the experiment results. Based on the steel properties measured by tensile tests, the FE analysis of the stiffened panels under hammer impact is validated by the experiment results. The applicability of evaluation criteria for dynamic buckling is investigated based on the plating response and the stiffener web response. The conclusions of this paper will be useful for the safety analysis of stiffened panels under impact loads.