On resistance of a rectangular thin plate under lateral indentation by a wedge indenter

This paper addresses a study on the resistance of a clamped rectangular plate quasi-statically punched at the mid-span by a rigid indenter with a knife and a flat edge shape, through simplified analytical method. A new membrane stretching pattern is proposed and the resistancepenetration response is obtained. To validate this analytical method, a series of quasi-static tests on specimens with three lengthwidth ratios and indenters with six different scantlings are conducted. The well-matching of the resistance-penetration curves from analytical calculations and those from experiments proves the validity of the proposed simplified analytical method. Based on the analytical method, the influences of the indenter size and the plate scantlings on the resistance are evaluated. Moreover, the analytical method proposed in this paper is proved to be able to predict the quasi-static response for a wide range of plate lengthwidth ratios as well as to forecast low-velocity impact dynamic responses.