Experimental and numerical study on the penetration of stiffened aluminium alloy plates punched by a hemi-cylindrical indenter

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present paper continues the recent works reported by Liu et al. (2020) where quasi-static indentation experiments and finite element simulations were reported to investigate the plastic behaviour and failure of four stiffened aluminium-alloy plates punched by a rigid hemispherical indenter: one bare plate, one butt-welded plate, two plates with respectively one and two flat-bar stiffeners. Here specimens with the same geometry are investigated using a rigid hemi-cylindrical indenter to examine the effect of the indenter shape on the deformation and collapse modes. The experimental comparison shows the different structural deformation and failure mechanisms of welded aluminium alloy panels. The finite element analysis discusses the importance of the modelling of welded joining details, the boundary conditions and the material degradation at welded heat-affected zones and at the same time illustrates the similarities and differences between impact analyses of aluminium and steel stiffened plates.