Computational modeling verification for plates with hat-stiffeners subjected to uniformly distributed transverse load

Abstract

The use of computational models to evaluate the mechanical behavior of steel structures is widespread for academic and commercial/industrial applications. This work proposes a numerical model developed in the ANSYS Mechanical APDL software, which is based on the Finite Element Method, to analyze the deflection of steel plates with trapezoidal-shaped box-beam stiffeners, also known as hat-stiffened plates. The objective of this study is to verify the proposed computational model, which uses the finite element type SHELL281, comparing its results with those of two previous studies that adopt finite elements type SHELL63, SHELL93, SHELL181 and/or BEAM3, analyzing the mechanical behavior of the plates in terms of maximum deflection in the structure. For this, two case studies found in the literature were reproduced here. The maximum difference found in relation to the literature results for the case study 1 was 1.40% for a simply supported plate; in turn the case study 2 showed an average difference of 3.30% for the simply supported plate and 2.43% for the clamped plate. Therefore, from these results it was possible to consider the proposed computational model as properly verified.