The Compressive Strength of Longitudinally Stiffened Plates Undergoing Local and Distortional Buckling

This paper describes an experimental research on the structural behavior and the ultimate strength of longitudinally stiffened plates subjected to local, distortional, or mixed-mode buckling under compression. The stiffened plate undergoes local, distortional, or interactive local-distortional buckling according to the flexural rigidity of the plate's longitudinal stiffeners and the width-thickness ratios of the sub-panels of the stiffened plate. A significant post-buckling strength in the local and distortional modes affects the ultimate strength of the longitudinally stiffened plate. Compression tests were conducted on stiffened plates that were fabricated from 4mm-thick SM400 steel plates with a nominal yield stress of 235MPa. A simple strength formula for the Direct Strength Method based on the test results was proposed. This paper proves that the Direct Strength Method can properly predict the ultimate strength of stiffened plates when the local buckling and distortional buckling occur simultaneously or nearly simultaneously.