Ultimate strength of dented steel plates under edge shear loads

The aims of this paper are to investigate the ultimate shear strength reduction characteristics of steel plates due to local impacts, and also to develop the ultimate shear strength design formulae of dented steel plates. The ANSYS nonlinear finite element code is used to investigate the effects of shape, size (depth, diameter), and location of the denting on the ultimate strength behavior of simply supported steel plates under edge shear loads. A closed-form expression for predicting the ultimate shear strength of dented steel plates is derived by the regression analysis based on the computed results. The results and insights developed from the present study will be very useful for damage tolerant design of steel plated structures with local denting.