Inelastic local buckling of flat, thin-walled structures containing thickness-tapered plates

This paper is concerned with the inelastic local buckling of flat plate structures that contain plates with variable thicknesses. Use is made of the semi-analytical complex finite strip method, which is augmented with transverse bubble functions. Stiffness and stability matrices are derived for inclusion in the finite strip method, which is based on the deformation theory of plasticity. The numerical scheme is programmed, and several numerical examples are presented to illustrate the prowess and scope of the procedure. The inelastic local buckling of tapered plates subjected to compression and shear with different boundary conditions is studied first, and the method is then applied to the inelastic local buckling of channel sections with tapered flanges and stiffened plates with variable thickness and different geometries. Slenderness limits for channels that delineate between local buckling and yield (and that define the transition from non-compact to slender cross-sections) are discussed.