Experiments on the bending failure of diagonally stiffened circular plates

Abstract

In this paper, the bending behavior of circular steel plates with diagonal stiffeners has been studied. A bending analysis of the circular plates with different diagonal stiffeners has been carried out experimentally in order to predict their ultimate bending capacity. Two types of shallow and deep stiffeners of reverse L and rectangular cross sections were installed to strengthen the plates. In the experiments, both simply-supported and clamped-edge boundary conditions were set up under the effect of lateral pressure. The obtained experimental results have been verified by a non-linear analysis of the stiffened circular plates using the finite element method (FEM). The analytical process has been carried out based on the tensile test data of the steel used in the specimens. Furthermore, the post-buckling behavior of the plates has been studied up to the final flexural collapse, where unusual rupture results have been found. Different studies have shown a good consistency between experimental and analytical results.