Abstract:
Steel plates are used in a great variety of engineering applications, such as deck
and bottom of ship structures, and platforms of offshore structures. Cutouts are often
provided in plate elements for inspection, maintenance, and service purposes. So, the design
of shape and size of these holes is significant. Usually these plates are subjected to axial
compressive forces which make them prone to instability or buckling. If the plate is slender,
the buckling is elastic. However, if the plate is sturdy, it buckles in the plastic range causing
the so-called inelastic (or elasto-plastic) buckling.Therefore, the goal of this work is to obtain
the optimal geometry which maximizes the buckling load for steel plates with a centered
elliptical perforation when subjected to linear and nonlinear buckling phenomenon by means
of Constructal Design. To do so, numerical models were developed in ANSYS software to
evaluate the elastic and elasto-plastic buckling loads of simply supported and uniaxially
loaded rectangular plates with elliptical cutouts. The results indicated that the optimal shapes
were obtained in accordance with the Constructal Principle of "Optimal Distribution of
Imperfections", showing that the Constructal Design method can be satisfactorily employed in
mechanic of materials problems.