Experimental and Numerical Investigation on Bucklinpg and Post-Buckling Behavior of Steel Plates with Circular Cutouts

Steel plates are used in various structures,such as the structures of the deck and body of ships, bridges, and aerospace industry. In many cases, thesestructures are exposed to axial compression loads, which could lead to buckling. Several Factors can affect the buckling behavior such as: aspect ratio,location and shape of cutouts, initial imperfection, etc. In this study, the buckling and post-buckling behavior of rectangular plates with various numbers of cutouts aswell as the effects of imperfection and aspect ratio are studied experimentally and numerically. Theexperimental tests were carried out by an INSTRONservo-hydraulic machine and ABAQUS software was considered for numerical simulation. Boundaryconditions were clamped supports at upper and lower ends and free supports at other edges. The obtained results show that, the nearer cutouts to the middle ofthe plate have more influence on the reduction of the buckling load and the movement of the cutouts from the center of the plate along the transversal axis has little effect on the buckling load. Furthermore, with an increase in the length to width ratio, the buckling loaddecreases considerably. The numerical andexperimental methods are in a good agreement to predict the buckling load and the difference in thebuckling load obtained from these methods is less than2% in most cases. Finally, the imperfection has a prominent role in buckling behavior of plates.

Keywords:

buckling , steel plates , cutout , imperfection