On improved analytical method for stress–strain relationship for plate elements under axial compressive load

Accurate prediction of load carrying capacity of the ship hull is very important for its structural safety. The stress–strain relationship of hull structural element plays a vital role in this. A simple analytical method to predict the average stress–average strain relationship for plating between stiffeners in ship structures is proposed, in which two different methods are combined: the membrane stress method by Paik et al. (2000) Paik, J K, Thayamballi, A K and Kim, D H. 2000. Ultimate strength and effective width formulations for ship plating subject to combined axial load, edge shear and lateral pressure. Journal of Ship Research, 44(4): 247–258. [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] involving large elastic deformation theory and the rigid plastic collapse mechanism theory by Yao et al. (1991) Yao, T and Nikolov, P I. 1991. Progressive collapse analysis of a ship's hull under longitudinal bending. Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Japan, 170: 449–461. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]. The former governs the stress–strain relationship up to ultimate strength while the latter is used beyond ultimate strength. A MATLAB code is developed for this purpose. The plating between stiffeners is analysed under axial load for different aspect ratio values. The present results are compared with published FEA results. It is concluded that the present method is quite accurate for deriving the average stress–average strain relationship of ship hull plating.