In order to investigate a collapse behavior of ship structural elements such as panels, one separate panel may be analyzed with due consideration on its boundary conditions. In this case, the continuity between neighboring panels has to be considered in the boundary condition. Then, it becomes possible to examine accurately the load carrying capacity of panels. In this paper, the behavior of a rectangular panel subjected to combined in-plane loads is analyzed to the post-ultimate strength by imposing an appropriate boundary condition that consists of in-plane and rotational continuity conditions along edges of the panel.
Recently nonlinear analyses using finite element method have been usually performed taking advantage of increasing computer ability. For a thin walled structure like a ship, elasto-plastic large defection analyses are not only applied for one panel surrounded by stiffeners but also to a larger portion of structures. A ship structure is composed of many structural members and highly redundant. Collapse of one of structural members, there-- fore, does not directly lead to the overall collapse of the structure. On the other hand, the post-ultimate behaviors of the structural elements should be clarified in order to analyze the collapse mechanism of the overall structure[1][2]. Ship side shell, primary member, is subjected to in-plane loads such as compressive and shearing forces. It is important to evaluate accurately ultimate strength of these shells in order to estimate the overall collapse of a ship structure[3][4] [5][6][7]. To evaluate rationally the load carrying capacity of each separate panel to a post-ultimate strength, it is important to consider continuity of panels composing a thin walled structure[8]. In this paper, an analysis method of collapsing behavior of a panel subjected to in-plane loads will be mentioned by considering continuities between the adjacent panels which regard to in-plane
