Ultimate Compressive Strength of Orthogonally Stiffened Steel Plates

Abstract

An approximate method to predict ultimate strength is presented for orthogonally stiffened steel plates subjected to uniaxial compression, based on the orthotropic plate theory. The present method can treat all collapse modes which occur on the orthogonally stiffened plates; for example, overall buckling of the main plate together with longitudinal and transverse stiffeners, and overall buckling of the main plate between the adjacent transverse stiffeners together with longitudinal stiffeners. In addition, the method includes the effect of the local buckling that occurs on the longitudinal stiffeners and/or the plate panels bounded by both the longitudinal and transverse stiffeners. Thus the method can be used for the practical design of actual steel stiffened plates; i.e., subjected to eccentric compression, nonuniformly stiffened, or having large stringers together with longitudinal stiffeners. Many test results of longitudinally and orthogonally stiffened steel plates subjected to uniaxial compression are used for comparing with the ultimate strength predicted by the present method. It is found from comparison that the present method shows a good agreement with the test results.