Ultimate strength of locally damaged panels

• The behaviour and ultimate strength of damaged plate panels is investigated.
• The damage is in a form of local imperfection and represents a dent.
• Panels are made of nine identical plates and only one of the plates is damaged.
• It was concluded that one span model is enough when considering only the ultimate strength.
• It was concluded that if the whole collapse behaviour is to be analysed the large panel is recommended.

The behaviour and ultimate strength of locally damaged plate panels is investigated in this study. The damage is in the form of a local imperfection and represents a dent that could be caused by a fall or strike of an object. Panels are made of nine identical plates – three plates transversally and three longitudinally – and only one of the plates is damaged. The influence of several parameters has been studied to establish their interaction with the presence of the local dent. The main focus, is however the influence of the adjacent intact plates. The large panel is compared with smaller transverse model made of three plates and with a single plate model in order to evaluate the effects of adjacent plates and define the minimum size of the model necessary to obtain proper results.