THE EFFECT OF MATERIAL STRAIN HARDENING ON THE BUCKLING STRENGTH OF A PERFORATED PLATE UNDER UNIAXIAL LOADING

Abstract

Plates or members containing plate elements have been used in the offshore, aerospace and construction industry. Cutouts are often located to lighten the weight of the structure, but these cutouts reduce the ultimate strength of the plate. A number of studies have taken place for determining the buckling strength of a perforated plated but few discuss the effect of material strain hardening on the buckling strength of a perforated plate. Buckling strength is often considered as an important criterial to determine the serviceable limit of the perforated plate in the offshore structure. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of material strain hardening on the strength characteristic of a perforated plate under uniaxial loading. This load at some point could lead to a possibility of instability. A square plate with perforation is considered here. The plate is considered to be simply supported at all four edges and has been kept straight. The perforation is located at the center of the plate. A number of ANSYS static nonlinear analysis are undertaken with different strain hardening material properties for AL7075. The Ramberg-Osgood method is used to determine the stress-strain curve for different strain hardening values. The plate thickness and the cutout size of the perforation are varied to determine the effect on the strength. The study covers the behavior of the system in the elastic buckling and the elastic-plastic region.