Ultimate Strength of Continuous Stiffened Aluminium Plates Under Combined Biaxial Compression and Lateral Pressure

Abstract

Ultimate compressive strength of welded stiffened aluminium plates under combined biaxial in-plane compression and different levels of lateral pressure is assessed herein. A numerical database of the ultimate strengths for stiffened aluminium plates is generated at first. Then, regression analysis is applied in order to derive the empirical formulations as functions of two parameters, namely the plate slenderness ratio and the column (stiffener) slenderness ratio. The formulae implicitly include the effects of initial imperfections and heat affected zone.

Keywords:
Ultimate strength; Continuous stiffened aluminium plates; Biaxial compression; Lateral pressure; Empirical formulation; Heat-affected zone; Finite Element Method (FEM); Regression analysis