Numerical simulation of the nonlinear behavior of flat plates with square holes under uniaxial compression in naval and offshores structures

Abstract

Plates are structural elements of flat surface, whose thickness is small compared to other dimensions. These elements have wide applicability in engineering due to its structural performance when subjected to bending, high strength-weight ratio and ease description of the mechanical behavior due to the efficient analytical calculation methods. These types of structures can be delimited by stiffeners which form part of ships structures, oil offshore rigs, locks and floating docks, for example. In naval structures, holes are common to open access, maintenance or reducing the total weight. These holes influence on the ultimate strength of the plates, because they cause a change in mechanical behavior of the structure, due to the stress redistribution along the plate. Inelastic buckling analyses were performed to study the behavior of plates with square holes using the finite element method. The sample includes 120 plates where the width is kept constant and the length, the thickness and size of the central square hole are varied. The computational modeling was performed using the ANSYS software, and it was possible to determine the ultimate load resistance for each case, allowing to analyze the influence of hole size, slenderness aspect ratio of the plate in its load capacity.