Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 4583

www.elsevier.com/locate/tws

Ultimate strength formulations for stiffened

panels under combined axial load, in-plane
bending and lateral pressure: a benchmark study
Jeom Kee Paik*, Bong Ju Kim
Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, Pusan National University,
30 Jangjeon-Dong, Gumjeong-Gu, Busan 609-735, South Korea
Received 14 March 2000; revised 17 July 2001; accepted 30 July 2001

Abstract
This paper develops advanced, yet design-oriented ultimate strength expressions for stiffened panels subject to combined axial load, in-plane bending and lateral pressure. The collapse
patterns of a stiffened panel are classified into six groups. It is considered that the collapse
of the stiffened panel occurs at the lowest value among the various ultimate loads calculated
for each of the collapse patterns. The panel ultimate strengths for all potential collapse modes
are calculated separately, and are then compared to find the minimum value which is then
taken to correspond to the real panel ultimate strength. The post-weld initial imperfections
(initial deflection and residual stress) are included in the developed panel ultimate strength
formulations as parameters of influence. The validity of the developed formula is confirmed
by comparing with the mechanical collapse tests and nonlinear FEA. A comparison of the
present method is also made with theoretical solutions from the Det Norske Veritas classification society design guideline. Important insights developed are summarized. 2001
Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Stiffened panel; Ultimate limit state design; Ultimate strength; Overall collapse; Plate-induced
failure; Stiffener-induced failure; Local buckling of stiffener web; Tripping; Gross yielding

* Corresponding author. Tel: +82-51-510-2429; fax: +82-51-512-8836.

E-mail address: jeompaik@pnu.edu (J. K. Paik).
0263-8231/02/$ - see front matter 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 2 6 3 - 8 2 3 1 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 0 4 3 - X

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J.K. Paik, B.J. Kim / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 4583

1. Introduction
A limit state is formally defined as a condition for which a particular structural
member or an entire structure fails to perform the function that it has been designed
beforehand for. From the special view point of a structural designer, four types of
limit states are usually considered, namely serviceability limit state, ultimate limit
state, fatigue limit state and accidental limit state. In design, these various types of
limit states may be considered against different safety levels, the actual safety level
to be attained for a particular type of limit state being a function of the perceived
consequences to be accounted for and ease of recovery to be incorporated in design.
Of concern in this paper is the ultimate limit state design of steel stiffened panels.
Theoretically, the primary modes of overall failure for a stiffened panel subject
to predominantly compressive loads may be categorized into the following six
groups, namely
Mode I: Overall collapse after overall buckling of the plating and stiffeners as a
unit, see Fig. 1(a),
Mode II: Plate-induced failure by yielding at the corners of plating between stiffeners, see Fig. 1(b),
Mode III: Plate-induced failure by yielding of a platestiffener combination at
mid-span, see Fig. 1(c),
Mode IV: Stiffener-induced failure by local buckling of stiffener web, see Fig.
1(d),
Mode V: Stiffener-induced failure by lateraltorsional buckling of stiffener, see
Fig. 1(e), and
Mode VI: Gross yielding.
Mode I typically represents the collapse pattern when the stiffeners are relatively
weak. In this case, the stiffeners can buckle together with plating, the overall buckling
behavior remaining elastic. The stiffened panel can normally sustain further loading
even after overall buckling in the elastic regime occurs and the ultimate strength is
eventually reached by formation of a large yield region inside the panel and/or along
the panel edges. In Mode I, the panel behaves as an orthotropic plate.
The other groups (i.e., Modes IIVI) normally take place when the stiffeners are
relatively strong so that the stiffeners remain straight until the plating between stiffeners buckles or even collapses locally. The stiffened panel will eventually reach
the ultimate limit state by failure of stiffeners together with associated plating. It is
noted that the stiffened panel with weak stiffeners where failure of stiffeners occurs
prior to buckling of plating normally follows Mode I, i.e., failure after overall buckling occurs in the elastic regime.
Mode II typically represents the collapse pattern wherein the panel collapses by
yielding at the corners of plating between stiffeners, which is usually termed a plateinduced failure at ends. This type of collapse can also occur in some cases when
the panel is predominantly subjected to biaxial compressive loads. Mode III indicates
a failure pattern in which the ultimate strength is reached by column or beam-column

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47

Fig. 1. (a) Mode I: Overall collapse after overall buckling of the plating and stiffeners as a unit. (b).
Mode II: Plate-induced failure by yielding at the corners of plating between stiffeners. (c). Mode III:
Plate-induced failure by yielding of platestiffener combination at mid-span. (d). Mode IV: Stiffenerinduced failure by local buckling of the stiffener web. (e). Mode V: Stiffener-induced failure by lateral
torsional buckling of stiffener.

type collapse of the platestiffener combination with the associated effective

(reduced) plating. Mode III typically takes place by yielding of the platestiffener
combination at mid-span, which is usually termed a plate-induced failure at mid-span.
Modes IV and V failures typically arise when the ratio of stiffener web height to
stiffener web thickness is too large and/or when the type of the stiffener flange is
inadequate to remain straight so that the stiffener web buckles or twists sideways.
Mode IV represents a failure pattern in which the panel collapses by local buckling

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J.K. Paik, B.J. Kim / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 4583

of stiffener web, while Mode V can occur when the ultimate strength is reached by
lateraltorsional buckling (also called tripping) of stiffener.
Mode VI typically takes place when the panel slenderness is very small (i.e., the
panel is very stocky or thick) and/or when the panel is predominantly subjected to
the axial tensile loading so that neither local nor overall buckling occurs until the
panel cross section yields entirely.
Calculation of the ultimate strength of the stiffened panel under combined loads
taking into account all of the possible failure modes noted above is not straightforward, because of the interplay of the various factors previously mentioned such as
geometric/material properties, loading, post-weld initial imperfections (i.e., initial
deflection and residual stress) and boundary conditions. As an approximation, this
paper considers that the collapse of stiffened panels occurs at the lowest value among
the various ultimate loads calculated for each of the above collapse patterns. This
leads to an easier alternative wherein one calculates the ultimate strengths for all
collapse modes mentioned above separately and then compares them to find the
minimum value, which is then taken to correspond to the real panel ultimate strength.
The behavior of steel stiffened panels normally depends on a variety of influential
factors, namely geometric/material properties, loading characteristics, initial imperfections, boundary conditions and existing local damage related to corrosion, fatigue
crack and denting. A number of studies on the ultimate strength for stiffened panels
have been undertaken experimentally, numerically and theoretically. Comparisons
between some of these methods have been performed by many investigators [14].
Smith [5] presents a series of tests on full scale welded steel grillages subjected
to a combination of axial compression and lateral pressure. Efforts on experimental
investigation for stiffened panel collapse behavior are made by Tanaka and Endo
[6], Hu et al. [7] and Hopperstad et al. [8], among others. Smith and his colleagues
[912] provide an extensive contribution to the ultimate strength design for ship
stiffened panels under combined in-plane and lateral pressure loads. The panel ultimate strength formulation based on column or beam-column type collapse pattern
is typically based on the so-called PerryRobertson formula [1319]. Local buckling
of stiffener webs is studied by Paik et al. [20]. Many researchers have studied tripping
of stiffeners theoretically, numerically and experimentally. Earlier work that used
classical theory of thin-walled bars has been summarized and expanded by Bleich
[21]. During the 1970s and 1980s, further studies have been undertaken by Faulkner
et al. [2225] and Adamchak [26]. Hughes [15] has reviewed and summarized some
of these studies. During the 1990s, in addition to the tripping problem under axial
compression alone [2730], the effect of combined axial compression and lateral
loads has been studied by Hughes and Ma [31,32] and Hu et al. [33].
While the previous studies being useful for prediction of the stiffened panel ultimate strength, most studies are based on one or two collapse patterns. As previously
noted, various failure modes can potentially involve in collapse of a stiffened panel
and the panel ultimate strength formulation should accommodate all these potential
collapse patterns mentioned above. The stiffened panel in ships is generally subjected
to combined in-plane and lateral pressure loads. In-plane loads include axial load
and in-plane bending, which are mainly induced by overall hull girder bending. Lat-

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49

eral pressure is due to water pressure and cargo. These load components are not
always applied simultaneously, but more than one normally exist and interact. Thus
it is of crucial importance to evaluate the panel ultimate strength taking into account
the effect of combined loading. Since the post-weld initial imperfections in the form
of initial deflections and residual stresses exist in ship stiffened panels and can affect
(reduce) significantly the ultimate strength, such welding induced initial imperfections should be included in the strength calculations as parameters of influence.
The aim of the present paper is to develop an advanced, yet design-oriented
method for evaluating the ultimate limit state of stiffened panels under combined
axial load, in-plane bending and lateral pressure. It is considered that the collapse
of stiffened panels occurs at the lowest value among the various ultimate loads calculated for each of the six collapse patterns mentioned above. The panel ultimate
strengths for all collapse modes are calculated separately and then compare them to
find the minimum value which is then taken to correspond to the real panel ultimate
strength. The post-weld initial imperfections are included as parameters of influence.
To test the validity of the developed method, verification examples are studied by
comparing with the mechanical collapse tests and nonlinear FEA. A comparison of
the present method is also made with the Det Norske Veritas design guideline for
marine stiffened plate structures.

2. Modeling of steel stiffened panels

Fig. 2 shows a typical steel stiffened plate structure. Its response can be studied
at three levels, namely the entire structure level, the stiffened panel level and the
bare plate level. This paper is primarily concerned with the second level (i.e., the
stiffened panel level) in which a panel is supported by girders along longitudinal

Fig. 2.

A typical stiffened plate structure.

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J.K. Paik, B.J. Kim / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 4583

edges and by frames (or floors) along transverse edges. In the following, some basic
idealizations made for development of the panel ultimate strength formulations are
described.
2.1. Panel geometry
The length and breadth of the stiffened panel are denoted by L and B, respectively.
The thickness of the plate is t. For generality, the ultimate strength formulations
developed in this paper consider that the panel can have stiffeners in one or both
directions. The numbers of x- or y-stiffeners are nsx or nsy. The cross-sectional area
of a single stiffener in the x or y direction is denoted by Asx = hwxtwx + bfxtfx or
Asy = hwytwy + bfytfy. The spacing of the stiffeners is b = B/(nsx + 1) between x-stiffeners or a = L/(nsy + 1) between y-stiffeners.
Fig. 3 shows typical cross-sections of longitudinal or transverse stiffeners. The
moments of inertia of x- or y-stiffeners with attached effective plating are denoted
by Ix and Iy, respectively. The cross-sectional areas of a stiffener together with
attached effective plating are denoted by Ax and Ay for x- and y-stiffeners, respectively.

Fig. 3.

Typical cross-section types for longitudinals and transverses.

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51

2.2. Panel material

The material used in stiffened panels of merchant ship structures is usually mild
or high tensile steel. Note that the use of aluminum alloys is increasing in the design
and fabrication of high speed ship structures. The elastic modulus of both plating
and stiffeners is E and the Poisson ratio is n. The panel ultimate strength formulations
are designed so that the yield stress of the plate can be different from that of the
stiffeners. The yield stress of plating and stiffeners is denoted by sop and sos, respectb sop
.
ively. The plate reduced slenderness ratio is denoted by b =
t
E

2.3. Panel boundary condition

It is assumed that the panel edges are simply supported [i.e., with zero deflection
and zero rotational restraints along all (four) edges] with all edges kept straight. For
steel stiffened plate structures, this assumption normally provides some pessimistic
but adequate results.
2.4. Load effects
When a continuous plated structure is subjected to external loads, the load effects
(e.g., stress, displacement) can normally be calculated by linear elastic finite element
method or classical theory of structural mechanics. When a ship hull is under vertical
bending, deck panels are predominantly subjected to longitudinal axial compression
in sagging or longitudinal axial tension in hogging, while bottom panels are subjected
to combined longitudinal axial compression/tension and lateral pressure. Upper side
shells are normally subjected to combined longitudinal axial compression/tension
and longitudinal in-plane bending, while lower side shells are subjected to combined
axial compression/tension, longitudinal in-plane bending and lateral pressure loads.
Therefore, the number of load components considered in the present paper is of three
types, namely longitudinal axial compression/tension, longitudinal in-plane bending
and lateral pressure, as shown in Fig. 4.
The average value of longitudinal stress is denoted by sxav = (sx1 + sx2)/2 and the
longitudinal axis stress at the most highly stressed x-stiffener is denoted by sxM. It
is idealized that the panel is subjected to uniform lateral pressure p; an average value
of lateral pressure is taken for side shell panels of ships. The in-plane bending stress
is determined by sxb = |sx1sxav| = |sx2sxav|.
2.5. Fabrication related initial imperfections
Both plating and stiffeners may have post-weld initial deflections as shown in Fig.
5(a). The maximum initial deflection of plating between stiffeners is denoted by wopl.
The column type initial deflection of stiffeners is denoted by wosx and wosy for xand y-stiffeners, respectively. Both plating and stiffeners may also have welding

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J.K. Paik, B.J. Kim / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 4583

Fig. 4. A stiffened steel panel under combined longitudinal axial load, longitudinal in-plane bending
and lateral pressure.

Fig. 5. (a) An example pattern of post-weld initial deflections in steel stiffened panels.(b) Idealization
of the distribution of welding induced residual stresses in the plating between stiffeners in the x and y
directions (Tens.=tension, Comp.=compression).

induced residual stresses. Fig. 5(b) shows the typical idealization of welding induced
residual stresses in plating between stiffeners. It is often idealized that the stiffeners
may have uniform equivalent compressive residual stress over the stiffener web
cross-section which are denoted by srsx and srsy for x- and y-stiffeners, respectively.

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53

3. Panel ultimate strength formulations

This paper calculates the panel ultimate strengths for various collapse modes separately. The real panel ultimate strength is then considered to be the lowest value
among the various ultimate loads calculated for each of the collapse patterns. In a
sense, contribution of the present paper is integration of past efforts which have been
separately made for individual collapse patterns. Since a more elaborate description
for panel ultimate strength formulations of all collapse modes considered may be
found in Paik et al. [34], this paper focuses on the interpretation of the basic ideas
how to calculate the ultimate strength for each of various collapse modes. Mode VI
(i.e., failure by gross yielding) is checked as part of each of the other five failure
modes.
3.1. Panel ultimate strength formulation for collapse mode I
When the panel has a number of relatively small stiffeners, the stiffened panel is
replaced by an orthotropic plate. In this case, the stiffeners are smeared into the
plating. The orthotropic plate theory taking into account large deflection effects [35]
can be used to calculate the membrane stress distribution of a stiffened panel whose
failure follows Mode I. The orthotropic plate is considered to have an equivalent
yield stress which is a representative yield stress of both plating and stiffeners, which
may be taken as soeq = (Btsop + nsxAsxsos)/(Bt + nsxAsx).
The effect of in-plane bending moment on the ultimate strength of the orthotropic
plate may be neglected for practical design purposes (that is, it is considered that
the orthotropic plate is subjected to combined sxav and p). This is because some
part of the panel is subjected to axial tension while axial compression is applied in
the other part. The tensiled region works toward stabilizing the plate until the ultimate
strength is reached. However, in-plane bending is an important factor in the ultimate
strength calculations for a panel which collapses by failure of the stiffeners.
The influence of post-weld initial deflection is taken into consideration in the
analysis, but the effect of welding induced residual stresses is ignored for Mode I.
This is because when the stiffened panel is subjected to predominantly axial compressive loads, the compressive residual stresses will work toward reducing the
strength but the tensile residual stresses will contribute resistance to the applied loads,
and vice versa for axial tensile loading. The decrease/increase of load carrying
capacity due to welding induced residual stresses may in effect be offset by the
effect of the increase/decrease of the ultimate strength.
The panel ultimate strength following mode I is denoted by sIxu. For the detailed
derivation of the ultimate strength formulation following collapse mode I, the reader
may be referred to Paik et al. [35].
3.2. Panel ultimate strength formulation for collapse mode II
In Mode II, the stiffened panel is considered to collapse if the corners of plating
between the most highly stressed stiffeners yield after plating between stiffeners

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J.K. Paik, B.J. Kim / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 4583

buckles or collapses. It is in this case idealized that the plating between stiffeners
is subjected to the axial stress sxM at the most highly stressed stiffener and lateral
pressure p. Also, the post-weld initial imperfections in the form of initial deflection
and residual stress are included as parameters of influence. The panel ultimate
strength formulation for collapse mode II is then given by

sxmax 2 sxmax symax
symax

sop
sop
sop
sop

(1)

where sxmax and symax are maximum membrane stresses of plating between stiffeners
in the x or y-direction, respectively, which are expressed as functions of sxM and p
as well as initial imperfections.
The solution of Eq. (1) with regard to sxM is then denoted by sIIxu. The membrane
stress distribution inside the plating under combined loads is analyzed by solving
the governing nonlinear differential equations of large deflection (isotropic) plate
theory. For an elaborate description for the membrane stress distribution inside the
plating, the reader may be referred to Paik et al. [36].
For predominant lateral pressure loading, two upper limits of the ultimate pressure
load for stiffened panels are also typically relevant. The first upper limit is given as
the ultimate lateral pressure load as previously obtained for Mode I overall grillage
collapse. The second upper limit is the critical lateral pressure (denoted by pcr) of
plating (between stiffeners) clamped at all edges, as obtained by rigid plastic theory
[37], which is given by
pcr Cp

s2op
Eb2

(2)

where
Cp 12/[3 (b/a)2b/a]2
Thus, the ultimate lateral pressure load should not be greater than the two upper
limits noted above. While Eq. (2) is used for illustrative examples of this paper, the
coefficient, Cp of Eq. (2), is often replaced by Cp = 4[1 + (b/a)2] for more pessimistic
computations, which corresponds to the rigid plastic theory result for a plate simply
supported at all edges. Note that the rigid plastic theory formulae noted above do
not account for the membrane effects and thus they may predict the critical lateral
pressure pessimistically.
3.3. Panel ultimate strength formulation for collapse mode III
For this collapse mode, the beam-column approach using the PerryRobertson
formula is typically applied. The PerryRobertson formulation assumes that the stiffener with associated plating will collapse as a beam-column when the maximum
compressive stress in the extreme fiber reaches the yield strength of the material.
The two possible collapse modes for the PerryRobertson formulation are usually

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55

considered depending on the failure of the most highly stressed fiber, i.e., plateinduced failure, and stiffener-induced failure. The former is related to yielding of
the associated plating due to compression while the latter may result from either
yielding of the extreme stiffener fiber (without twisting of stiffener) or tripping of
stiffener (with twisting of stiffener).
When subjected to combined axial compression (sxM) and lateral line load (
q = pb, multiplied by uniform lateral pressure p and the breadth b of plating between
longitudinal stiffeners), the ultimate strength of a platestiffener combination can be
calculated using the PerryRobertson formula. While a more elaborate description
may be found in Hughes [15], the PerryRobertson ultimate strength expression for
the platestiffener combination under combined sxM (compression) and q accounting
for the effect of initial deflection is derived (when compression is taken as positive),
as follows

1h
1
sIII
xu
Kr
1m

sox
2
l2

1 h 2 1m
1
1m
2
4
l2
l

(3)

where l=slenderness ratio of longitudinals with attached effective plating,

Mqmax zc
Axzc
(w
+ wosx)=initial deflection related parameter, m =
=lateral load
h=
Ix qmax
sos Ix
related parameter, Mqmax=maximum bending moment due to lateral load alone (at
mid-span) which may be taken as Mqmax = qa2/8, wqmax=maximum deflection due to
lateral load alone (at mid-span) which may be taken as, wqmax = 5qa4/(384EIx),
wosx=column type initial deflection of x-stiffener, zc = zpx + 0.5t for plate-induced
failure and zc = zfx + 0.5tfx for stiffener-induced failure (see Fig. 6), Kr=knock-down
factor due to residual stress which is in the illustrative examples of this paper taken
as Kr = 1.030.08|srsx/sox|1.0 [14] (For a more refined treatment of the residual

Fig. 6.

Geometric properties of longitudinals with attached effective plating.

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J.K. Paik, B.J. Kim / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 4583

stress effect on beam-column strength, the reader may be referred to Trahair and
Bradford [38]).
It is important to realize that Eq. (3) does not involve local buckling of stiffener
web or tripping of stiffener. Since compression is defined as negative, sIII
xu will
eventually take a negative value for sxM in compression. For sxM in tension, the
panel ultimate strength will approximately equal the equivalent yield strength, i.e.,
sIII
xu = sos.
In the course of the present study, it was recognized that the PerryRobertson
formula predictions based on stiffener-induced failure mode are too pessimistic.
Therefore, we exclude the stiffener-induced failure condition, i.e., yielding at tip of
the stiffener from Mode III panel ultimate strength calculations. The possibility of
the stiffener-induced failure mode due to either local buckling of stiffener web or
lateraltorsional buckling of stiffener is dealt with in Modes IV or V, respectively
later on.
It was also realized that for panels with relatively weak stiffeners the PerryRobertson approach can predict an ultimate axial compressive strength which is in some
cases even less than that of the bare plate (i.e., panel without stiffeners), while the
orthotropic plate approach gives the value which is greater than the real panel ultimate strength. In this regard, a lower limit of the panel ultimate strength following
Mode III, given by the weighted average of the bare plate ultimate strength and the
orthotropic plate ultimate strength as long as sxM is compressive, is used:
GO
tsGB
xu teqsxu
t teq

| ||
sIII
xu

(4)

GO
where sGB
xu and sxu are the ultimate strengths for the bare plate and the orthotropic
plate under sxM plus p, respectively, the latter being calculated from the panel ultimate strength equation for Mode I, and the former being also calculated from the
same equation but removing stiffeners from the entire panel. teq is the equivalent
plate thickness which is taken as teq = t + nsxAsx/B. In this paper, this fictitious collapse pattern is denoted as Mode I (mean) for record keeping purposes.

3.4. Panel ultimate strength formulation for collapse mode IV

The web or flange of a stiffener in a stiffened panel can locally buckle, a possibility
that must usually be considered for built-up sections. Such occurrence of local buckling in the stiffener cross-section can sometimes be quite a sudden phenomenon
resulting in subsequent unloading of the stiffened panel, particularly with use of flat
bar stiffeners.
In this case, once such stiffener web buckling occurs, the buckled or collapsed
plating is left with essentially little stiffening and thus overall stiffened panel collapse
may follow immediately. In Mode IV, it is assumed that the panel reaches the ultimate limit state immediately after the local buckling of the stiffener web at its most
highly stressed location.
The local buckling of the stiffener web or flange, and the buckling/collapse of

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57

plating between stiffeners normally interact, and can take place in any order,
depending on the dimensions of plating and stiffener. Clearly, buckling of the stiffener flange or web prior to the inception of buckling in plating between stiffeners is
normally an undesirable failure mode which should be specifically avoided by design.
In most design guidelines from the classification societies, it is normally considered that the stiffener web or flange should not buckle until the plating between
stiffeners buckles or collapses. More exactly, the local buckling strength of the stiffener web or flange depends on the torsional rigidities of the adjacent members to
which they are attached, among other factors.
One assumption that is implicit in our present description is that the stiffener
flange, where one is present, does not buckle prior to the buckling of the web. Flange
buckling is normally not a concern with rolled sections, but in built-up sections, it
needs to be considered and controlled. This is normally carried out in design by
meeting certain flange slenderness limits. Hence, the Mode IV ultimate strength may
be estimated from the local buckling strength of the stiffener web taking into account
the influence of rotational restraints along the platestiffener and stiffener web-flange
junctions. This is, however, likely to be pessimistic, a better approximation being
possibly to take the panel ultimate strength as the average of the applicable plate
and stiffener web ultimate strengths.
The local buckling strength of the stiffener web depends significantly on the torsional rigidities along the platestiffener or stiffener web-stiffener flange intersection,
among other factors. While a detailed description may be found in Paik et al. [20],
the elastic buckling strength for the stiffener web considering rotational restraints
between plating and stiffeners and between stiffener web and flange can be given
by considering the effect of residual stress srsx (when compression is taken as
positive), as follows
sW
xE kwx

p2Dwx
s
h2wxtwx rsx

(5)

where sW
xE is the elastic local buckling strength of x-stiffener web and kwx is the
elastic buckling coefficient of x-stiffener web. Expressions for these are given in
Paik et al.[20], established on the basis of curve fits to the more refined solutions
of the governing differential equation applicable to buckling. Dwx = Et3wx/12(1n2)
A stocky stiffener web may buckle in the elastic-plastic regime. To account for
the effect of plasticity, the so-called JohnsonOstenfeld formula with the yield stress
of the stiffener sos is used, resulting in the collapse strength of x-stiffener web
W
(denoted by sW
xu). When sxM is tensile, sxu = sos is normally taken.
The ultimate axial strength of the entire panel by the stiffener web buckling of
the most highly stressed x-stiffener can then be obtained as the weighted average of
the ultimate strength of the plating between stiffeners and the collapse strength of
the x-stiffener web for the entire cross sectional area of the panel, as follows
sIV
xu

sLxubt sW
xuAsx
bt Asx

where sLxu=ultimate strength of plating between stiffeners [36].

(6)

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J.K. Paik, B.J. Kim / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 4583

3.5. Panel ultimate strength formulation for collapse mode V

The lateraltorsional buckling (also called tripping) of stiffeners is a phenomenon

in which the failure of a stiffened panel occurs subsequent to the stiffener twisting
sideways about the edge of the stiffener web attached to the plating. When the torsional rigidity of the stiffener is small or the stiffener flange is weak, this phenomenon is more likely to take place.
Like the stiffener web buckling previously described, tripping can be a relatively
sudden phenomenon resulting in subsequent unloading of the stiffened panel. Once
tripping occurs, the buckled or collapsed plating is left with little stiffening and thus
overall collapse may follow. In Mode V, the stiffened panel is considered to collapse
if tripping occurs. If the height of stiffener web increases in comparison to its thickness, the stiffener web is likely to deform and local buckling can in some cases
occur. This type of failure is included in Mode IV. Hence, for purposes of Mode
V, we consider a type of tripping wherein the cross-section of the stiffener web does
not deform locally, consistent with a similar assumption used in ordinary beamcolumn theory.
It therefore follows that the tripping strength of the flat bar type stiffener equals
the local buckling of the stiffener web, and such a case is to be treated as part of
Mode IV and not Mode V. The ultimate strength of the stiffened panel is then
approximated as a weighed average of the ultimate strengths of the plating and the
tripping strength of the stiffener. The intention behind the averaging proposed is to
avoid an overly pessimistic estimate of the stiffened panel ultimate strength.
While the rotational restraints between the stiffener web and the attached plating
may generally play an important role in tripping behavior or local buckling of stiffener web (the latter being previously discussed in Mode IV), rotational restraint
effects from the plating may be ignored if the plating between stiffeners buckles
prior to tripping so that the contribution of the attached plating to restrict the rotation
of the stiffener web at the plateweb junction is small and thus it may be considered
that the stiffener and the attached plating are pin-joined. This assumption will arguably result in a lower bound solution of the tripping strength since plate rotational
restraints will always exist to some extent, while the effect of buckled plating may
approximately be incorporated using an effective plate width in calculating the
restraint properties for the platestiffener combination.
The elastic tripping strength of angle or tee-type stiffeners under combined axial
compression (sxM) and uniform lateral pressure line load q = pb (i.e., multiplied by
uniform lateral pressure p and the breadth b of plating between longitudinal
stiffeners) in the x direction can be calculated by applying the principle of the minimum potential energy [31]. The effect of plasticity is then incorporated by using the
JohnsonOstenfeld formula, resulting in the inelastic tripping strength denoted by
sTxu. When sxM is tensile, sTxu = sos may be used. Also, sTxu = 0 is used when the
panel does not have stiffeners in the x direction.
Applying an argument similar to that used for Mode IV, the ultimate longitudinal
axial strength of the stiffened panel subsequent to tripping (denoted by sVxu) is

J.K. Paik, B.J. Kim / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 4583

59

approximated by the weighted average of local collapse strength of plating and stiffener tripping strength in the x direction, as follows:
sVxu

sLxubt sTxuAsx
bt Asx

(7)

where sLxu=ultimate strength of plating between stiffeners [36].

4. Verification examples
To test the validity of the panel ultimate strength formulations, verification
examples are now considered. In these examples, the ultimate strength formulations
are compared with experimental, numerical and theoretical results. Predictions from
the design oriented procedures proposed in this paper were automated using a computer program called ALPS/ULSAP which stands for Analysis of Large Plated
Structures/ULtimate Strength Analysis of Panels.
The nonlinear FEM computes the elastic-plastic large deflection behavior of the
stiffened panel as an assembly of both plating and stiffeners until the ultimate
strength is reached. In the FE computations, a sufficiently fine mesh is taken for
stiffeners as well as plating so that the local buckling or tripping of stiffeners is
automatically considered as those for the mechanical tests. The SPINE solutions are
obtained using a semi-analytical method [39] for elastic-plastic large deflection
analysis of plates and stiffened panels when stiffener tripping is not considered. The
DnV CN 30.1 results are obtained by the design guideline of the Det Norske Veritas
[40]. We have documented at length the mechanical collapse test data used in our
comparisons so that they may be of use to others as well.
4.1. Ultimate strength characteristics of plating
Since local collapse of plating between stiffeners is a primary failure mode of
stiffened panels and grillages, verification examples of the present method to bare
plates (unstiffened plating) are studied. Fig. 7 compares theoretical results of
ALPS/ULSAP and DnV CN 30.1 methods with the mechanical collapse tests and
the nonlinear FEA for long plating with different plate aspect ratios and under longitudinal axial compressive loads. For more details of the test data, Ellinas et al. [41]
may be referred to. In the FEA, two types of the unloaded plate edge condition
are applied; (1) the unloaded plate edges move freely in plane, and (2) they are
kept straight.
The mechanical collapse tests involve various levels of both initial deflections and
residual stresses. For the FE analyses, an average level of initial deflections is
considered, while the welding residual stresses are not included. The ALPS/ULSAP
method deals with initial imperfections as direct parameters of influence, while the
DnV CN 30.1 method implicitly considers an average level of initial imperfections
in the ultimate strength calculations.

60

J.K. Paik, B.J. Kim / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 4583

Fig. 7. Comparison of the ALPS/ULSAP and DnV CN 30.1 methods with mechanical test results and
FEA for long plating under uniaxial compression, reference numbers being extracted from Ellinas et
al. [41].

It is seen from Fig. 7 that the ultimate strengths as obtained from the DnV CN
30.1 method correspond well with those from ALPS/ULSAP with initial deflection
of w0 = 0.1b2t and residual stress of 15% yield stress. The FE predictions with the
edge condition (1) are smaller than those with the edge condition (2), as would be
expected. It may be surmised from Fig. 7 that in FE computations, keeping the
unloaded plate edges straight is more relevant for thick or medium thickness plating,
while it is more appropriate for thin plating to take the boundary condition that the
unloaded edges move freely in plane. When considering that most actual steel plating
of marine structures is relatively thick or in medium thickness, i.e., with the plate
reduced slenderness ratio in the range of 1.03.0, however, the boundary condition
(2), i.e., that the unloaded plate edges are kept straight, may be more appropriate
for practical design purposes.
Fig. 8 compares the ALPS/ULSAP and DnV CN 30.1 methods with the mechanical collapse test results by Yamamoto et al. [42] for long plating of a/b = 3 under
combined longitudinal axial compression and lateral pressure loads. The SPINE solutions accounting for the membrane effect are also compared. The model uncertainties of the ALPS/ULSAP method against the Yamamoto testing are
mean = 0.967 and COV = 0.064.

J.K. Paik, B.J. Kim / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 4583

61

Fig. 8. (a) Comparison of the ALPS/ULSAP and DnV CN 30.1 methods with the Yamamoto collapse
test results for plating under combined axial compression and lateral pressure, b = 3.508. (b) Comparison
of the ALPS/ULSAP and DnV CN 30.1 methods with the Yamamoto collapse test results for plating
under combined axial compression and lateral pressure, b = 2.554. (c) Comparison of the ALPS/ULSAP
and DnV CN 30.1 methods with the Yamamoto collapse test results for plating under combined axial
compression and lateral pressure, b = 3.084.

4.2. Ultimate strength characteristics of longitudinally stiffened panels

The ultimate strength characteristics of longitudinal stiffened panels, i.e., with flatbar, angle or tee-type stiffeners in the longitudinal direction, are now studied by
comparing the ALPS/ULSAP method with mechanical collapse test results and nonlinear FEA as well as the DnV CN 30.1 design guideline.
4.2.1. The Tanaka and Endo mechanical collapse tests
Tanaka and Endo [6] carried out a series of experimental and numerical FE investigations on the ultimate compressive strength characteristics of longitudinally stiffened panels having three flat bar stiffeners, which were intended to fail by local

62

J.K. Paik, B.J. Kim / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 4583

buckling or tripping of longitudinal stiffeners (Note that for flat-bar stiffeners, local
buckling of stiffener web is treated to be identical to tripping).
Fig. 9 shows a typical test structure from the Tanaka and Endo study. To account
for the effect of adjacent panels on the collapse behavior of the central panel, three
bay models with two adjacent (dummy) stiffened panels and supported by two transverse frames were employed. The plate thickness of two adjacent plating and stiffener
was 1.21.3 times that of the center plate so that collapse of adjacent panels prior
to the collapse of the center panel was prevented. Tables 13 represent
geometric/material properties and initial imperfections for the Tanaka and Endo
test structures.
Both the panel ultimate strength formula calculations and the Tanaka and Endo
FEA were carried out only for the longitudinally stiffened panel at the center with
all edges presumed simply supported and kept straight. Tables 4 and 5 indicate the
comparison results of the ultimate strength formulations with the experiments and
nonlinear FE solutions as applicable. The ALPS/ULSAP method predicts that except
for Nos. D0 and D3 all test structures fail by Mode IV (initiated by local buckling
of stiffener web or tripping) which corresponds well to the experiments. Figs. 10
and 11 show correlations between ALPS/ULSAP method, DnV method, experiment
and FEA.
For Nos D1 and D3, the experiment provided the ultimate strengths greater than
the material yield stress. For No. D4, the panel ultimate strength obtained by the
experiment was 99% of yield stress. This may be due to a strain-hardening effect.
It is noted that mean and COV of the Tanaka and Endo FEA against their experiments
is 0.978 and 0.139, respectively. Also, the ALPS/ULSAP method shows
mean = 0.953 and COV = 0.114 against experiments and mean = 0.979 and
COV = 0.060 against FEA, while the DnV CN 30.1 method shows mean = 0.682

Fig. 9. The Tanaka and Endo test structure for longitudinally stiffened panels under uniaxial compression, with two adjacent dummy panels.

n = 0.3, E = 205.8 GPa

1080
1080
1080
1080
1080
1080
1080
1080
1080
1080

D0
D0A
D1
D2
D3
D4
D4A
D10
D11
D12

a (mm)

Structure no.

1440
1440
1200
1560
1440
1440
1440
1200
1200
1440

B (mm)
6.15
5.65
5.95
5.95
5.95
5.95
5.65
4.38
4.38
4.38

t (mm)
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3

nsx (mm)
110.0
110.0
110.0
110.0
103.5
118.5
118.5
65
90
65

hwx (mm)
9.77
10.15
10.19
10.19
11.84
7.98
8.08
4.38
4.38
4.38

twx (mm)

Table 1
Mean values of geometric and material properties for the Tanaka and Endo test structuresa

234.2
249.9
253.8
253.8
253.8
253.8
249.9
442.0
442.0
442.0

sop (MPa)

287.1
196.0
250.9
250.9
326.3
284.2
274.4
442.0
442.0
442.0

sos (MPa)

248.3
234.2
252.9
253.0
275.6
261.4
256.3
442.0
442.0
442.0

soeq (MPa)

J.K. Paik, B.J. Kim / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 4583

63

64

J.K. Paik, B.J. Kim / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 4583

Table 2
Geometric characteristics of the Tanaka and Endo test structuresa
Structure no.

b
t

a
k

Asx
bt

D0
D0A
D1
D2
D3
D4
D4A
D10
D11
D12

58.54
63.72
50.42
65.55
60.50
60.50
63.72
68.49
68.49
82.19

1.97
2.22
1.77
2.30
2.12
2.12
2.22
3.17
3.17
3.81

33.0
32.2
31.3
33.0
33.8
31.4
31.0
69.7
46.1
74.3

0.39
0.32
0.35
0.37
0.43
0.37
0.36
1.03
0.68
1.10

0.49
0.55
0.63
0.48
0.57
0.44
0.47
0.22
0.30
0.18

k=radius of gyration of longitudinals with associated plating, l =

E =column slenderness ratio

a
kp

sos

Table 3
Initial imperfections for plating and longitudinals for the Tanaka and Endo test structuresa
Structure no. Ao3 (mm)

wosx
(mm)

wosy
(mm)

D0
D0A
D1
D2
D3
D4
D4A
D10
D11
D12

0.101
0.250
0.143
0.288
0.312
0.119
0.379
0.515
0.503
0.523

srcx (MPa)

20.58

25.97
18.62
23.03
34.00

37.24
24.99
37.73

srcy (MPa)

srsx (MPa)

srsy (MPa)

a
Ao3=buckling mode initial deflection for half-wave number m = 3, and the items marked by hyphen
were neither measured nor reported

and COV = 0.120 against experiments and mean = 0.714 and COV = 0.201
against FEA.
4.2.2. Effect of stiffener geometry under uniaxial compression
To investigate the effect of stiffener geometry on the panel ultimate strength under
uniaxial compression, nonlinear FE analyses using the computer program ANSYS
were carried out for longitudinally stiffened panels under uniaxial compressive loads
varying the stiffener web height. The ALPS/ULSAP method is then compared with
nonlinear FE solutions.
The dimensions and material properties of plating in the stiffened panels presented

0.843
1.095
0.900
1.032

0.990
0.875
0.547
0.527
0.510

D0A
D1
D2
D3

D4
D4A
D10
D11
D12

IV/V
IV/V
IV/V
IV/V
IV/V

IV/V
IV/V
IV/V
IV/V

IV/V

Mode
FEA

0.784
0.758
0.631
0.618
0.571
Mean
COV

0.867
0.952
0.842
0.888

0.910

sxu
soeq

0.792
0.866
1.154
1.173
1.120
0.978
0.139

1.028
0.869
0.936
0.860

0.977

(sxu)FEA
(sxu)Exp.
ULSAP

0.885
(0.914)
0.839
0.953
0.799
0.811
(0.869)
0.831
0.834
0.586
0.589
0.540
Mean
COV

sxu
soeq

ALPS/ULSAP

0.951
(0.982)
0.995
0.870
0.888
0.786
(0.842)
0.839
0.953
1.071
1.118
1.059
0.953
0.114

(sxu)ULSAP
(sxu)Exp.
0.973
(1.004)
0.968
1.001
0.949
0.913
(0.979)
1.060
1.100
0.929
0.953
0.946
0.979
0.060

(sxu)ULSAP
(sxu)FEA

II
IV/V
IV/V
IV/V
IV/V
II
IV/V
IV/V
IV/V
IV/V
IV/V
IV/V

Mode

Mode IV/V indicates local buckling of stiffener web or tripping of stiffener, being identical because of flat bar profiles. Collapse mode of the
ALPS/ULSAP method, Mode II indicates plate-induced failure by yielding at the corners of plating between stiffeners. The values of () are given for
comparisons when the ALPS/ULSAP method predicted a collapse mode different from the experiment

0.931

Exp.

D0

sxu
soeq

Structure no. Tanaka and Endo

Table 4
Comparison of the ALPS/ULSAP with the Tanaka and Endo experiment and FEAa
J.K. Paik, B.J. Kim / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 4583
65

66

J.K. Paik, B.J. Kim / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 4583

Table 5
Model uncertainties of the DnV CN 30.1 method against the experiments and FEA for the Tanaka and
Endo test panels under uniaxial compressiona
Structure no.

D0
D0A
D1
D2
D3
D4
D4A
D10
D11
D12

DnV CN 30.1
sxu
)
(
soeq DnV

(sxu)DnV
(sxu)FEA

Mode

(sxu)Exp.

0.685
0.679
0.758
0.665
0.644
0.675
0.663
0.338
0.337
0.270
Mean
COV

0.736
0.805
0.692
0.739
0.624
0.682
0.758
0.618
0.639
0.529
0.682
0.120

0.753
0.783
0.796
0.790
0.725
0.861
0.875
0.536
0.545
0.473
0.714
0.201

A
B
B
A
A
A
A
B
B
B

(sxu)DnV

Mode A=plate-induced failure, Mode B=stiffener-induced failure

Fig. 10. Correlation of ALPS/ULSAP predictions with experiments or FEA from Tanaka and Endo.

in these examples were selected to be typical of the bottom plating between bottom
longitudinal girders and transverse floors (frames) in large merchant vessel structures.
The values used are B = 3600 mm, a = 2640 mm, t = 21 mm, material yield stress
of plating sop = 352.8 MPa, elastic modulus E = 205.8 GPa and Poissons ratio
n = 0.3. The geometric properties of the stiffeners are varied to investigate the
characteristics of panel collapse pattern while the yield stress of stiffeners is taken

J.K. Paik, B.J. Kim / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 4583

67

Fig. 11. (a) Correlation of ALPS/ULSAP and DnV CN 30.1 predictions with the Tanaka and Endo
experiments. (b) Correlation of ALPS/ULSAP and DnV CN 30.1 predictions with the Tanaka and
Endo FEA.

equal to that of the plating, i.e., sos = sop. The panel has three stiffeners in the
longitudinal direction. The thickness of the stiffener web is 12 mm.
In the FE computations, the following assumptions are made: The boundary conditions for the stiffened panels are all simply supported along the four edges which
are kept straight. The cross section of stiffeners remains plane at panel edges as it
would in a stiffened panel supported by heavy transverse frames and longitudinal
girders. The column type initial deflection of stiffeners is taken as wosx = 0.1b2t,
while initial deflection for plating between stiffeners is assumed to be
wopl = 0.5wosx. A small value of initial local side way deflection of the stiffener web
is assumed so that the convergence is achieved more easily. The welding residual
stress is not considered.
Fig. 12 shows the variations of ultimate compressive strength for longitudinally
stiffened panels as obtained by ALPS/ULSAP. It is evident from Fig. 12 that the
height of stiffener web increases, the panel ultimate strength increases. When the
stiffeners are relatively small, the stiffeners buckle together with plating showing
Mode I failure. When the stiffeners become stiff, the plating between stiffeners
buckles while the stiffeners remain straight, and the ultimate strength is eventually
reached by the column type of collapse involving Mode III. If the height of stiffener
web exceeds a critical value, however, the ultimate strength tends to flatten out or
even decrease. This is because the stiffener web buckles locally or twists sideways
when the height of stiffener web is large.
Fig. 12 also shows the ultimate strength predictions from the DnV design guideline. For collapse mode identification of the DnV formulae, Table 5 is referred to.
It is noted that the design formulae from the classification societies normally consider
the stiffened panels that the stiffeners have been properly designed with sufficient

68

J.K. Paik, B.J. Kim / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 4583

Fig. 12. (a) Ultimate strengths of longitudinally stiffened panels with three flat bars under uniaxial compression by varying the ratio of stiffener web height to web thickness. (b) Ultimate strengths of longitudinally stiffened panels with three angle bars under uniaxial compression by varying the ratio of stiffener
web height to web thickness. (c) Ultimate strengths of longitudinally stiffened panels with three T-bars
under uniaxial compression by varying the ratio of stiffener web height to web thickness.

strength. In that sense, the comparison of the classcification society design guidelines
on the stiffened panels with small stiffeners will not be in fact meaningful.
4.2.3. Effect of stiffener geometry under combined axial compression and lateral
pressure
Some preliminary studies of the effects of lateral pressure and welding induced
residual stresses on the ultimate strength characteristics of longitudinally stiffened

J.K. Paik, B.J. Kim / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 4583

69

panels are now presented. The lateral pressure at water head of 20 m is considered
to be applied on the same direction as the column type initial deflection of stiffeners.
Fig. 13(ac) show the variations of the ultimate compressive strength in terms of
the ratios of stiffener web height to web thickness, lateral pressure and welding
residual stresses for the longitudinally stiffened panels with three flat bars, angle
bars or tee-type stiffeners, respectively. When the stiffener web height is small, the
stiffened panels collapse in Modes I or I(Mean), while if the stiffener web height is
larger than a certain value, then the plating between stiffeners buckles locally
between stiffeners and the panel reaches the ultimate strength by beam-column type
collapse initiated by plate-induced failure. As the stiffener web height increases

Fig. 13. (a) Effect of lateral pressure and residual stress on ultimate strength of a longitudinally stiffened
panel with three flat bars. (b) Effect of lateral pressure and residual stress on ultimate strength of a
longitudinally stiffened panel with three angle bars. (c) Effect of lateral pressure and residual stress on
ultimate strength of a longitudinally stiffened panel with three tee-bars.

70

J.K. Paik, B.J. Kim / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 4583

further, the ultimate strength is reached by local buckling of the stiffener web or
tripping of stiffener.
As apparent, lateral pressure or residual stresses can significantly affect (reduce)
the panel ultimate compressive strength in some cases. The DnV CN 30.1 predictions
are generally very pessimistic. This is because the DnV CN 30.1 method determines
the panel ultimate strengths as the minimum value of the two results from the Perry
Robertson formula based on either the stiffener-induced failure mode or the plateinduced failure mode, while in most cases the minimum value of the ultimate strength
is due to the stiffener-induced failure mode. Experimental confirmation by model
tests is in this regard lacking, and further investigations are needed regarding the
degree of effect noted.
4.3. Ultimate strength characteristics of grillages
The ultimate strength characteristics of grillages, i.e., with flat-bar, angle or teetype stiffeners in both longitudinal and transverse directions, are studied by comparing the ALPS/ULSAP method with experimental and numerical results as well as
theoretical solutions from the DnV classification society design guideline.
4.3.1. The Smith mechanical collapse tests
Smith [5] carried out a series of collapse tests using a total of 11 full scale welded
steel grillages representing typical warship deck structures under axial compression,
or bottom structures under combined axial compression and lateral pressure. The test
structures include four pairs of nominally identical grillages (Nos 1a, 1b, 2a, 2b, 3a,
3b, 4a, 4b) representing a ship bottom configuration, together with two grillages (Nos
5, 7) representing frigate strength decks and one grillage (No. 6) corresponding a
light superstructure deck. The typical grillage model that Smith tested is shown in
Fig. 14. Smith et al. [10] later computed the ultimate strengths of the Smith test
grillages using the nonlinear finite element method as well.

Fig. 14.

The Smith test grillage with support members in both directions.

J.K. Paik, B.J. Kim / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 4583

71

The overall dimensions of each grillage were L = 6096 mm long by B = 3048 mm

wide, excluding the panel ends which are bolted to the test frames along the edges.
Except for Nos 4a and 4b which have both large girders and small stiffeners in the
longitudinal direction, all test grillages have identical T-type longitudinal stiffeners
and identical tee-type transverse frames. Table 6 indicates the geometric properties
of longitudinals and transverses, respectively, where Nos 4a and 4b are represented
by the longitudinally stiffened panel between two adjacent longitudinal girders and
two adjacent transverse frames. The material yield stresses of plating and stiffeners
are indicated in Table 6. Table 7 presents the important ultimate strength related
geometric characteristics for each grillage.
The initial deflections of plating, longitudinals or transverses were measured in
these tests. There was reportedly a high degree of variability associated with the
plate initial deflection measurements, where the COVs of wopl and wosx were in the
range of 0.220.63 and 0.291.04, respectively. Specifically, it is reportedly observed
that plating and stiffener imperfections for model No. 3b were abnormally large,
with an unfavourable relative stiffener distortion as well. Also, No. 6 representing
a light superstructure deck had serious level of initial imperfections which would be
untypical in a real structure. The welding induced residual stresses of plating were
also measured for selected grillages. The COV of srcx was in the range of 0.12
0.52. The residual stresses of longitudinals or transverses were neither measured nor
reported. Table 8 summarizes the initial imperfections of plating and stiffeners of
each grillage on the basis of the measurements and insights provided in Smith [5]
and Smith et al. [10]. Based on the measured initial deflection patterns of plating,
Table 8 represents the buckling mode initial deflection component of each grillage
also. It is noted that in the FEA of Smith et al. [10], two types of computations were
tried with different level of initial deflections, namely FEA-1 and FEA-2, the former
being with average initial imperfections and the latter being with actual initial imperfections.
The ALPS/ULSAP method treats the entire test grillage as a unit, i.e., that includes
both longitudinals and transverses. The Smith FEA models the test grillage as a
representative two-bay platestiffener combination. The DnV CN 30.1 method takes
longitudinally stiffened panel between two adjacent transverse frames as the extent
of calculation.
Tables 911 compare the present design equation predictions as proposed, with
DnVCN 30.1 and the actual Smith mechanical test results. Fig. 15 shows the correlation of the theoretical solutions and experimental results. The collapse modes predicted by ALPS/ULSAP method are also indicated in Table 10. It is seen that most
test models collapsed by tripping of longitudinals (Mode V) as obtained by the
experiments. It is also noted that the ALPS/ULSAP predictions compare reasonably
well with the other data in most cases. Fig. 16 shows the correlations of
ALPS/ULSAP, DnV CN 30.1, experiment and FEA.
4.3.2. Effect of combined axial compression and lateral pressure
Fig. 17 compares the design methods with the Smith collapse test results or SPINE
solutions for the grillages under combined axial compression and lateral pressure,

6096
6096
6096
6096
6096
6096
1219.2
1219.2
6096
6096
6096

1a
1b
2a
2b
3a
3b
4a
4b
5
6
7

3048.0
3048.0
3048.0
3048.0
3048.0
3048.0
1016.0
1016.0
3048.0
3048.0
3048.0

B (mm)

8.00
7.87
7.72
7.37
6.38
6.40
6.43
6.40
6.43
6.32
6.30

4
4
9
9
9
9
3
3
4
4
4

153.67
152.40
115.57
114.30
77.72
77.22
76.71
76.96
116.08
76.20
115.06

7.21
7.11
5.44
5.38
4.52
4.65
4.85
4.55
5.33
4.55
5.16

78.99
76.20
45.97
44.70
25.91
27.94
27.69
26.16
46.23
27.43
45.21

14.22
14.22
9.53
9.53
6.35
6.35
6.35
6.35
9.53
6.35
9.53

4
4
3
3
3
3

3
4
3

t
nsx
hwx (mm) twx
bfx (mm) tfx
nsy
(mm) (mm)
(mm)
(mm)
257.56
254.00
204.98
203.71
156.21
153.92

154.18
114.55
153.92

9.37
9.14
8.31
8.33
6.81
6.88

6.76
5.36
6.65

125.48
127.00
102.62
102.62
78.99
79.25

77.22
46.23
78.74

18.29
18.29
16.26
16.26
14.22
14.22

14.22
9.53
14.22

hwy (mm) twy

bfy (mm) tfy
(mm)
(mm)
249.1
252.2
261.3
259.7
250.6
252.2
259.7
264.3
247.6
256.7
290.1

sop
(MPa)

253.7
252.4
268.9
274.9
227.9
223.3
223.9
227.9
230.9
241.5
305.3

sos
(MPa)

250.4
252.3
263.1
263.3
246.8
247.3
252.2
257.3
244.9
255.2
303.3

soeq
(MPa)

a
Grillage Nos 4a and 4b represent longitudinally stiffened panels between two adjacent longitudinal girders and two adjacent transverse frames,
n = 0.3, E = 205.8 GPa

L (mm)

Grillage
no.

Table 6
Mean values of geometric properties and material yield stresses for the Smith test grillagesa

72
J.K. Paik, B.J. Kim / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 4583

J.K. Paik, B.J. Kim / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 4583

73

Table 7
Other geometric characteristics of the Smith test grillages
Grillage no.

b
t

a
k

Asx
bt

1a
1b
2a
2b
3a
3b
4a
4b
5
6
7

76.2
77.4
39.5
41.4
47.8
47.6
39.5
39.7
94.9
96.4
96.8

2.67
2.72
1.42
1.48
1.68
1.68
1.41
1.43
3.31
3.42
3.65

21
21
36.5
36
66
66
50
50
42
68
42

0.24
0.23
0.42
0.42
0.70
0.70
0.54
0.53
0.45
0.75
0.52

0.42
0.43
0.40
0.42
0.24
0.24
0.28
0.28
0.24
0.12
0.24

as studied above. For collapse mode identifications of the DnV CN 30.1 method,
Table 5 is referred to. The upper limit of the critical lateral pressure is also shown
in Fig. 17. The real panel ultimate lateral pressure should then be smaller than the
critical lateral pressure.
While the experiments and SPINE analyses were undertaken for the models of
the entire grillages, i.e., including both longitudinals and transverse frames, two kinds
of modeling with regard to the extent of calculation were considered for the
ALPS/ULSAP ultimate strength predictions, namely one for an entire grillage and
the other for a longitudinally stiffened panel between two adjacent transverse frames.
The real ultimate strength must be taken as the smaller value of the two results of
ALPS/ULSAP models.
It is evident that the latter ALPS/ULSAP calculation model significantly overestimates the ultimate strength compared to the former, particularly when the magnitude
of lateral pressure loads is large. The ultimate strength characteristics of ship grillages
depend on the dimensions of transverse frames as well as those of longitudinals.
When a larger magnitude of lateral pressure loads is applied, the relatively weak
transverse frames in the grillage can fail and do not continue to support the related
panel, and therefore the latter type of modeling, i.e., only for stiffened panel between
two adjacent transverse frames which are assumed to remain straight or not to fail,
may provide quite optimistic ultimate strength predictions of the grillage.
The grillages fail in the overall collapse mode I as the lateral pressure loads are
dominant. The ALPS/ULSAP method with the former type of modeling predicts the
ultimate strength reasonably well for the entire range of lateral pressure considered
in the Smith collapse test data used. As previously noted, the DnV CN 30.1 method
is available only for longitudinally stiffened panels between two transverse frames
which are considered not to fail until the panel reaches the ultimate strength. In fact,
the DnV CN 30.1 method is designed for longitudinally stiffened panels so that it
should not be used when the grillages fail together with transverse frames.

1a
1b
2a
2b
3a
3b
4a
4b
5
6
7

0.0007
0.0011
0.0025
0.0010
0.0028
0.0019
0.0023
0.0008
0.0008
0.0020
0.0007

wosx
a
0.7

0.2
0.8
0.5
0.5
0.4
0.4

wosy
wosx

0.48
0.33
0.38
0.43
0.38
0.41
0.16
0.31
0.08

srcx
sop

0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10

srcy
srcx

SourceSmith [5] and Table 3 of Smith et al., Aom=buckling mode initial deflection

0.0060
0.0077
0.0044
0.0060
0.0093
0.0150
0.0081
0.0063
0.0100
0.0125
0.0094

Grillage no. wopl

b

Table 8
Initial imperfections of plating, longitudinals and transverses for the Smith test grillagesa

srsx
sos

srsy
srsx

0.1
0.1
0.1
1.0
0.7
1.0
0.8
0.7
0.1
1.0
0.1

Aom
wopl

74
J.K. Paik, B.J. Kim / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 4583

0
0.103
0.048
0
0.021
0
0
0.055
0
0
0

1a
1b
2a
2b
3a
3b
4a
4b
5
6
7

0.76
0.73
0.91
0.83
0.69
0.61
0.82
0.83
0.72
0.49
0.65

sxu
soeq

Exp.

0.65
0.57
0.81
0.82
0.69
0.71
0.80
0.73
0.51

0.49

sxu
soeq

FEA1

FEA-1=with average imperfections, FEA-2=with actual imperfections

(8 psi)

(3 psi)

(15 psi)
(7 psi)

p (MPa)

Grillage no.

Table 9
Comparison of the Smith FEA with the experiment for ultimate strength of grillagesa

0.69
0.57
0.81
0.82
0.63
0.60
0.75
0.76
0.55

0.53
Mean
COV

sxu
soeq

FEA2

0.855
0.781
0.890
0.988
1.000
1.164
0.976
0.880
0.708

0.754
0.900
0.152

(sxu)FEA1
(sxu)Exp.

0.908
0.781
0.890
0.988
0.913
0.984
0.915
0.916
0.764

0.815
0.887
0.087

(sxu)FEA2
(sxu)Exp.

J.K. Paik, B.J. Kim / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 4583

75

0
0.103
0.048

0
0.021
0
0
0.055
0
0
0

1a
1b
2a

2b
3a
3b
4a
4b
5
6
7

ULSAP

0.76
0.62
0.79
(0.86)
(0.90)
0.79
0.69
0.58
0.80
0.81
0.52
0.37
0.52
Mean
COV

sxu
soeq

1.000
0.849
0.868
(0.945)
(0.989)
0.952
1.000
0.951
0.976
0.976
0.722
0.755
0.800
0.895
0.113

(sxu)ULSAP
(sxu)Exp.
1.169
1.088
0.975
(1.062)
(1.111)
0.963
1.000
0.817
1.000
1.110
1.020

1.061
1.020
0.095

(sxu)ULSAP
(sxu)FEA1
1.101
1.088
0.975
(1.062)
(1.111)
0.963
1.095
0.967
1.067
1.066
0.945

0.981
1.025
0.062

(sxu)ULSAP
(sxu)FEA2

III+V
III+V
III+V
III+V
III+V
III+V
I+V
III+V

V
V
III+V

Exp.

Collapse modes

V
V
I
III
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V

ULSAP

(1) I+V or III+V indicate that the grillage collapsed in Mode I or III together with Mode V. (2) The values of () are given for comparisons when
the ALPS/ULSAP method predicted a collapse mode different from the experiment

p (MPa)

Grillage no.

Table 10
Comparison of ALPS/ULSAP with the Smith experiments and FEA for ultimate strength of grillagesa

76
J.K. Paik, B.J. Kim / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 4583

0
0.103
0.048
0
0.021
0
0
0.055
0
0
0

1a
1b
2a
2b
3a
3b
4a
4b
5
6
7

0.61
0.57
0.79
0.79
0.54
0.64
0.71
0.52
0.50
0.41
0.44
Mean
COV

sxu
soeq

DnV

0.803
0.781
0.868
0.952
0.783
1.049
0.866
0.627
0.694
0.837
0.677
0.812
0.151

(sxu)DnV
(sxu)Exp.
0.938
1.000
0.975
0.963
0.783
0.901
0.888
0.712
0.980

0.898
0.904
0.102

(sxu)DnV
(sxu)FEA1
0.884
1.000
0.975
0.963
0.857
1.067
0.947
0.684
0.909

0.830
0.912
0.117

(sxu)DnV
(sxu)FEA2

A
A
B
B
B
B
B
B
A
B
A

Mode

a
(1) Collapse modes of the DnV CN 30.1 method: Mode A=plate-induced failure, Mode B=stiffener-induced failure, (2) FEA-1=with average imperfections, FEA-2=with actual imperfections

p (MPa)

Grillage no.

Table 11
Model uncertainties of the DnV CN 30.1 method against either the Smith experiments or the Smith FEAa

J.K. Paik, B.J. Kim / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 4583

77

78

Fig. 15.
lages.

J.K. Paik, B.J. Kim / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 4583

Correlation of ALPS/ULSAP predictions with the experiments or FEA for the Smith test gril-

5. Concluding remarks
The aim of the present study has been to develop an advanced, yet design-oriented
method for predicting the ultimate strength of steel stiffened panels under combined
axial load, in-plane bending and lateral pressure. The collapse patterns of a stiffened
panel are classified into six groups, namely overall grillage collapse, yielding at the
corners of plating between stiffeners, yielding of the platestiffener combination at
mid-span, local buckling of stiffener web, lateraltorsional buckling (tripping) of
stiffener and gross yielding. The real ultimate strength is then calculated as the lowest
value among the various ultimate strengths calculated for each of the collapse patterns. The validity of the developed method is confirmed by comparing with experimental, numerical and theoretical results.
Some important insights developed in this paper are as follows:
1. Most existing ultimate strength formulations of steel stiffened panels including
structural design guidelines from classification societies are typically designed for
the panels with relatively strong (longitudinal) stiffeners which do not fail prior
to plating between stiffeners. When the stiffeners are weak, these formulae may
not be meaningful since their ultimate strength predictions are too pessimistic;
they are even smaller than the ultimate strength of the bare panel, i.e., without
stiffeners. In this regard, the structural designer should be careful in use of such
design formulae when the stiffeners are relatively weak. It would be necessary to
clearly define the applicable range of the design formulations in terms of the
stiffener dimensions or strengths, while the ALPS/ULSAP method presented in
this paper extends over all dimensions of the stiffeners.
2. The so-called PerryRobertson formula for a representative platestiffener combi-

J.K. Paik, B.J. Kim / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 4583

79

Fig. 16. (a) Correlation of ALPS/ULSAP and DnV CN 30.1 predictions with the experiments for the
Smith test grillages. (b) Correlation of ALPS/ULSAP and DnV CN 30.1 predictions with the FEA-1
solutions for the Smith test grillages. (c) Correlation of ALPS/ULSAP and DnV CN 30.1 predictions
with the FEA-2 solutions for the Smith test grillages.

nation has typically been used in most existing ultimate strength formulations of
stiffened panels. In the course of the present study, it is realized that the stiffenerinduced failure mode based PerryRobertson formula generally provides too pessimistic results, while the plate-induced failure mode based PerryRobertson formula reasonably predicts the panel ultimate strengths in a specific range of stiffener dimensions which follows the beam-column type collapse mode (i.e., Mode

80

J.K. Paik, B.J. Kim / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 4583

Fig. 17. (a) Comparison of ALPS/ULSAP and DnV CN 30.1 predictions with the Smith test grillage
No. 1b under combined axial compression and lateral pressure. (b) Comparison of ALPS/ULSAP and
DnV CN 30.1 predictions with the Smith test grillage No. 2a under combined axial compression and
lateral pressure. (c) Comparison of ALPS/ULSAP and DnV CN 30.1 predictions with the Smith test
grillage No. 3a under combined axial compression and lateral pressure.

III). In this regard, the ALPS/ULSAP method excludes the stiffener-induced failure mode in using the PerryRobertson formula for Mode III.
3. In FE computations for the ultimate strength of plating (between stiffeners) under
axial compression, keeping the unloaded plate edges straight is more relevant for
thick or medium thickness plating, while it is more appropriate for thin plating
so that the unloaded plate edges move freely in plane. When considering that
most actual steel plating of marine structures is relatively thick or in medium
thickness, i.e., with the plate reduced slenderness ratio in the range of 1.03.0, it
would be suggested for practical design purposes so that the unloaded plate edges

J.K. Paik, B.J. Kim / Thin-Walled Structures 40 (2002) 4583

81

are kept straight, as long as the support members (stiffeners) do not fail until the
plating collapses.
4. The ultimate strength characteristics of steel grillages depend on the dimensions
of transverse frames as well as those of longitudinals. When transverse frames
are strong enough so that they do not fail prior to longitudinally stiffened panels
between transverse frames, the extent of analysis can be taken only for the longitudinally stiffened panel. When a larger magnitude of lateral pressure loads is
applied, however, the relatively weak transverse frames in the grillage can fail
and do not continue to support the related panel, and this may result in quite
optimistic ultimate strength predictions of the grillage if the longitudinally stiffened panel between transverse frames was taken as the extent of analysis. Therefore, it would be best to treat an entire steel grillage, i.e., with both longitudinal
stiffeners and transverse frames as a unit by accounting for their interaction. This
may be very important for bottom or lower side shell stiffened grillages of large
merchant vessels.
With a modern powerful desk-top computer, the tendency to focus on development
of structural design methodology has slightly transformed from simplification to
sophistication. The ALPS/ULSAP method has been designed to be more sophisticated than previous simplified theoretical methods, and requires much less computation than conventional nonlinear iterative finite element methods. For many years,
structural researchers have been working towards the goal of reliability-based design
of structures. Also, these calculations must be performed a large number of times.
Therefore, it is not practical to use iterative nonlinear finite element analyses for
these calculations. In contrast, the ALPS/ULSAP method is based on advanced, yet
design-oriented expressions and is therefore computationally very efficient.

Acknowledgements
The present study was undertaken under financial support from the Research Institute of Marine Systems Engineering of the Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
(Director: Prof. Hang S. Choi) who is thanked for this support. The authors are
grateful to Dr. A.K. Thayamballi of Chevron Shipping and Dr. E. Steen of Det
Norske Veritas for their valuable comments.

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