On the Ultimate Compressive Strength of Transversely Cracked Plates

Abstract

This paper aims to numerically analyse the ultimate strength of transversely cracked steel plates under longitudinal compressive loading, considering the effect of initial distortion as well. The main objective of this study is to investigate the ultimate compressive strength characteristics of an unstiffened steel plate due to transverse cracking damages located in the middle (i.e. centre cracks and edge cracks). To achieve that, a series of non-linear finite element (FE) analyses are carried out using ANSYS commercial finite element code. The obtained FE results are discussed to indicate the amount of crack influence, in terms of its length and location, on the ultimate compressive strength of a steel plate element with different thicknesses.