Geometrically Nonlinear Analysis of Eccentrically Stiffened Plates

A displacement-based finite element method Is presented for the geometrically nonlinear analysis of eccentrically stiffened plates. A nonlinear degenerated shell element and a nonlinear degenerated eccentric isoparametric beam (isobeam) element are formulated on the basis of Total Agrangian and Updated Lagrangian descriptions. In the formulation of the isobeam element, some additional local decrees of freedom are implementd to describe the stiffener's local plate buckling modes. Therefore this element can be effectively employed to model the eccentric stiffener with fewer D.O.F's than the case of a degenerated shell element. Some detailed buckling and nonlinear analyses of an eccentrically stiffened plate are performed to estimate the critical buckling loads and the post buckling behaviors including the local plate buckling of the stiffeners discretized with the degenerated shell elements and the isobeam elements. The critical buckling loads are found to be higher than the analytical plate buckling load but lower than Euler buckling load of the corresponding column, i.e, buckling strength requirements of the Classification Societies for the stiffened plates.