Elastic and elastic-plastic threshold stiffness of stiffened steel plate walls in compression

Abstract

This paper studies the minimum stiffness required to ensure elastic buckling and elastic-plastic post-buckling strength of subpanels of vertically stiffened steel plate walls (S-SPWs) under compression. In the linear elastic analysis, the threshold stiffness at which the buckling mode of S-SPWs changes from overall to subpanel local buckling is determined. Based on the understanding that the increased elastic critical buckling strength of the S-SPW is provided by the elastic buckling resistant capacity of the stiffeners, a formula is proposed to predict the elastic threshold stiffness.The elastic-plastic threshold stiffness of vertical stiffeners, which makes the subpanels develop their full elastic-plastic post-buckling capacity, is obtained through nonlinear analysis. This paper investigated the effects of subpanel aspect ratio, subpanel width-to-thickness ratio, number of stiffeners on the elastic-plastic threshold stiffness. The effect of initial imperfection is also included. Based on the understanding that the increased capacity of the S-SPW from overall to subpanel post-buckling is provided by the elastic-plastic strength and stiffness of the stiffeners, a formula to predict the elastic-plastic threshold stiffness is proposed. The proposed formulas for both threshold stiffness are found to possess good accuracy after some minor modifications. The comparison between elastic and elastic-plastic threshold stiffness is also presented.