Scale model design for the stiffened plate subjected to combined longitudinal compression and lateral pressure considering collapse modes

Abstract

The similitude criteria of stiffened plates subjected to combined longitudinal compression and lateral pressure are explored based on the collapse modes. The proposed approaches assume the plate, overall, beam-column, web and torsional slenderness would domain the collapse modes. Apart from these ratios, a non-dimensional parameter of lateral pressure is used for designing the magnitude of lateral pressure acting on the scale models for experiments in the laboratory. Meanwhile, the scaling factors of lateral pressure are proposed based on the thin-walled beam theory, which is used to verify the validation of the dimensionless parameter of lateral pressure. The similitude of the full-scale prototype and scale models are verified by the normalized ultimate stress. In view of the numerical results, the similitude criteria could give a reasonable design of scale models under the combined loads.