EFFECT OF TAPERING OF RATIO ON GEOMETRICAL NONLINEARITY OF THIN STEEL PLATE UNDER TRANSVERSE LOAD

Abstract

The primary objective is to determine whether the structural efficiency of plates can be improved with variable thickness. The large displacement analysis of steel plate with variable thickness at x-direction is obtained numerically, using finite differences. The effects of boundary condition, tapering ratio, type of tapering equation and plate aspect ratio on large deflection behavior of rectangular plates are investigated. Numerical results for rectangular steel plate are presented for the different effects. This study showed that the large deflection behavior is very sensitive for thickness variation (tapering ratio) where the maximum deflection will increase about 5% for slenderness ratio (b/t=100) and tapering ratio (1-2) of simply supported plate.