Post-buckling capacity of bi-axially loaded rectangular steel plates

Results from a detailed numerical investigation of the post-buckling behaviour of rectangular simply supported steel plates subjected to biaxial in-plane loading are presented. The Steel plates are loaded through forced edge displacements. The effects of initial imperfections, aspect ratio, plate slenderness and edge displacement ratio are included in the investigations presented. Capacity interaction curves are established in the bi-axial stress domain. It turns out that for certain stress ratios the imperfections dominating the ultimate capacity are not affine to the lowest classical buckling mode for biaxial stress. It is of great interest that short wave imperfections of a lower magnitude compared to conventionally used imperfections are seen to lower the capacity of the bi-axially loaded plates. The topic is of major concern in the flange plates of long span bridges with multi box girder configurations.