The post-buckled failure of steel thin plate shear webs with stiffened centrally located cut-outs

The paper details suitable finite element modelling strategies and solution procedures, using multi-point constraint displacement loading, to enable the determination of the post-buckled failure mechanics of the steel plate shear webs with stiffened cut-outs. The results presented in the paper give a detailed account of the complete loading history of the shear webs from the onset of loading through elastic buckling, yield initiation, elasto-plastic post-buckling and then final collapse leading to shear unloading for the case of normal stress free boundaries and failure at constant load for the case of straight edge boundaries. The paper illustrates the significant degrading influence on structural performance of the cut-outs and highlights the substantial recovery in shear strength that can be afforded by the ring stiffeners.