Comparison of Limit Load Solutions with Results of Collapse Tests of Perforated Plates with a Triangular Penetration Pattern

Limit load solutions obtained by elastic-perfectly plastic finite element analysis (EPP-FEA) are compared to results of tests of low-alloy steel perforated plate geometries loaded to full plastic collapse. Results are given for two plastic-collapse tests of flat circular disks with circular penetrations arranged in a triangular pattern and drilled normal to the surface of the plate. The ligament efficiency (minimum distance between holes divided by the distance between the centers of the holes) of the pattern is 0.32 and the plate thickness is 2.39 inches (60.7 mm). The tests were designed so that a transverse load generated plastic collapse in the outer row of penetrations due to a combination of transverse shear and in-plane bending. Limit-load solutions were obtained using EPP-FEA with small-strain, small-deflection linear geometry assumptions. Two FEA models are used: one where the perforated region is modeled using an equivalent solid plate (EQS) representation and another where each hole is explicitly modeled by FEA. The results presented in this paper demonstrate that the deformation patterns produced by the EPP-FEA solutions match exactly with the deformation patterns produced by the test. The EQS-EPP FEA solution is about 15% lower than the explicit-hole EPP-FEA solution. Using one-third the actual ultimate strength of the material as the strength parameter in the limit load calculation produces a calculated limit load that is greater than a factor of three less than the mean measured plastic-collapse load obtained in the tests. This paper adds to the qualification of the use of limit-load solutions obtained using small-strain, small deflection EPP-FEA programs for the calculation of the limit load for perforated plates.