This paper investigates the buckling behavior of simply supported plates with an arrangement of either regular or staggered perforations. Experiments on perforated aluminum plates validate a finite-element (FE) model employed for a geometric and nonlinear analysis (GMNIA) parametric assessment. The number, size, and position of perforations is varied, resulting in 300 FE models. The failure mode is shown to be governed by a geometric parameter Ω, distinguishing between two distinct types of behavior. A modified slenderness λl,m is introduced, revealing a strong relationship with the ultimate-to-net section yield strength ratio for plates typically exhibiting whole plate buckling or an interaction of local buckling modes. However, this relationship for plates typically exhibiting unstiffened strip buckling, Euler strip buckling, or lateral perforation buckling is considerably weaker. Using least-squares regression, a direct-strength method (DSM)–style equation is developed to predict the capacity of perforated plates, with either a regular or staggered arrangement of perforations. Given in terms of a parameter κ, this expression can accommodate both failure types with a mean accuracy μ=1.01, coefficient of variation (COV)=0.154, and a good overall R2 performance of 0.777. This demonstrates a significant improvement to existing methods.
Naraidoo et al. (Fri,) studied this question.