Residual ultimate strength of steel plates with longitudinal cracks under axial compression—Nonlinear finite element method investigations

The main objective of the present paper is to numerically examine the residual ultimate strength characteristics of steel plates with longitudinal cracks under axial compressive actions. The present paper is a sequel to the author's previous paper [Paik, J.K., 2008. Residual ultimate strength of steel plates with longitudinal cracks under axial compression—Experiments. Ocean Engineering 35, 1775–1783]. In contrast to the previous paper, the present paper deals with nonlinear finite element method investigations. Because the test programme is usually limited to a few test models in number for many reasons, the application of nonlinear finite element methods is often more beneficial to handle a more variety of parameters of influence. In the present paper, the insights developed from a series of ANSYS nonlinear finite element method computations are documented, where the effects of the crack orientation, the crack location, the crack size, the plate thickness, and the plate aspect ratio on the residual ultimate strength of steel plates with longitudinal cracks under axial compression are discussed. The insights developed from the present work will be useful for cracking damage-tolerant design of steel-plated structures and also for health monitoring or condition assessment of aging steel-plated structures with cracking damages.