Inelastic Analysis of Tripping Failure of Stiffened Steel Panels due to Stiffener Flange Transverse Initial Eccentricity

This thesis studies the present methods used to predict the ultimate tripping strength of stiffened panels under compressive axial stress. The current methods involve the use of a bifurcation, or eigenvalue, approach to predicting failure stress. The effects of initial transverse eccentricity of the stiffener are ignored using such a method. Six panels were modeled and tested with ABAQUS, a finite element software package, and the results were compared to output from ULSAP, a closed-form ultimate strength analysis program. The ultimate strengths predicted by ABAQUS changed with the influence of initial deflection of the stiffener flange, while the results from ULSAP did not change. This thesis attempts to use beam-column analysis on the imperfect stiffener flange to predict the tripping strength. It was determined that the procedure presented in this thesis does not accurately model the true failure mode of stiffeners in tripping. The resulting ultimate strengths are extremely conservative and neglect the importance of the stiffener web's role in tripping. Future work is recommended to expand on these findings and to incorporate the influence of the stiffener web into a beam-column solution.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Aerospace and Ocean Engineering

Department dc:contributor.department

Aerospace and Ocean Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Patten, Scott

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Hughes, Owen F.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Brown, Alan J.
• Patil, Mayuresh J.

• ultimate tripping strength initial deflection

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

etd-05102006-094606

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/32505