Plastic design of laterally patch loaded plates for ships

Laterally loaded rectangular plates are used extensively in various marine structures, and they are often subjected to patch loading during ice action or accidental actions, such as collision and grounding. Therefore, focus is placed on investigating the resistance of laterally patch loaded plates. Plastic yield line theory has been adopted in this paper, since considerable plastic behavior is exhibited. The beneficial influence of the membrane effect during finite deformations is taken into account. The derivation of the “roof-top”-type patch loading mechanism using work energy principles is described in some detail. An alternative collapse model, as named “double-diamond” pattern herein, is proposed which could reduce the resistance and agrees better with the results from nonlinear finite element analysis (NLFEA) in plastic bending phase compared to the conventional “roof-top” model. Moreover, a plate length restriction factor is introduced to enhance the applicability of the present formulation when free formation of the collapse mechanism is restricted by the finite length of the plate. The developed formulae show reasonable agreement with the results from NLFEA of the plate resistance–deformation relationships. The resistance according to the proposed formulation is also compared with the recently developed International Association of Classification Societies (IACS) unified requirements for plating design for polar ships.