Numerical modelling for buckling analysis of cracked shear panels

Utilizing shear panels is a common practice in civil, naval and aerospace engineering structures and the performance of the one with thin steel plate shear walls is an interesting issue of ongoing related researches. It is a well-recognized phenomenon that the behaviour, and consequently the design procedure, of shear panels are mostly dominated by pre-yield buckling occurrence. However the existence of crack defects due to corrosion, fatigue, welding or mishandling may shed more complexities to such panels in terms of bearing capacity degradation.In this paper, a procedure for modelling and analysis of shear panels containing central or edge cracks, using the finite element method, is presented. Results can be incorporated to recognize the required mesh refinements around the crack tips and edges. In addition, the effect of relative crack length on buckling capacity of shear panels is investigated.