Structural capacity of plates and stiffened panels of different materials with opening

This work experimentally investigates the influence of different opening sizes and shapes, different steel materials and structural configurations on the ultimate strength of steel plates. A series of experiments have been carried out for unstiffened plates and stiffened panels having an opening of different shape and size in addition to different constructional steels; high tensile and mild steel. The effect on the ultimate load carrying capacity of the opening sizes and shapes, different steels and structural configurations, post-collapse deformations and strain energy density are investigated and analysed. Several relationships of the ultimate stress ratio, ultimate load carrying capacity ratio for different steels as a function of the residual breadth ratio are presented and discussed. A relationship showing the effect of different structural configurations on the ultimate load carrying capacity ratio is presented. Several observations and concluding remarks are derived from the experimental results.