Strength Curves for Metal Plates in Compression (No. R821)

Abstract

The report presents a plate strength formulation applicable to metal in general, notably metals with nonlinear stress strain curves, such as aluminium and stainless steel alloys. The formulation is based on a generalised Winter-curve featuring two material-dependent constants. Analytic expressions are derived for these constants so that they can be determined for given material properties. The material properties are assumed to be expressed in terms of the Ramberg-Osgood parameters. The generalised formulation allows the plate strength equation to be determined for a given alloy, requiring only the Ramberg-Osgood parameters. The strength curves obtained using the generalised formulation are shown to compare well with finite element results. The strength equations apply to uniformly compressed plates simply supported along all four edges. The validity ranges for the material properties are 3≤n≤100 and 0.001≤e≤0.003 where e=σ0.2/E0. The plates are assumed to be free of residual stress.