Experimental and numerical investigations on plate girders with perforated web under axial compression and bending moment

• Six plate girders with perforated web under axial compression and bending moment were tested.
• Specimens failed with similar failure modes.
• FEA has been used to simulate the failure behavior of specimens.

While plate girders with perforated web are commonly used in ships, aircraft applications for their high efficiency. In spite of numerous papers in the literatures on plate girders with perforated web subjected to web crippling, the ultimate capacity load of plate girders with perforated web subjected to plate buckling has not been exhaustively examined. In this study, experimental and numerical studies are performed to investigate the failure behavior of plate girders with perforated web under axial compression and bending moment, which is the typical action pattern arising from cargo weight and water pressure together with hull girder motions in ships and ship-shaped offshore structures. Six specimens with one oval hole are tested to investigate the failure modes and ultimate load capacities of plate girders with perforated web. Test results show that computational model can predict the failure behavior of plate girders with perforated web, and an extensive numerical study is conducted to investigate the influence of hole location. It showed that hole location have more influence on ultimate capacity load of plate girders when hole close to the middle of the web, particularly. Based on the experimental and numerical investigations, an influence curve is proposed to account for effects of hole location.