Low-velocity impact behaviour and failure of stiffened steel plates

Abstract The behaviour and failure of stiffened steel plates subjected to transverse loading by an indenter is studied in this paper. Low-velocity dynamic and quasi-static tests of stiffened plates with geometry adopted from a typical external deck area on an offshore platform were conducted. The results show that the quasi-static tests provide a good reference for impact loading situations, although they displayed a larger displacement at fracture. Finite element simulations of the steel panel tests were performed, using the elastic-viscoplastic J 2 flow theory and a one-parameter fracture criterion. A relatively fine spatial discretization in the load application area was needed to capture accurately the onset of fracture. In order to locally refine the mesh, a method for automatic mesh refinement based on damage driven h-adaptivity was implemented and evaluated against results obtained with fixed meshes of various element sizes.