Yielding and buckling behavior of aluminium and steel shear panels with different slenderness ratios

The present study investigates the effects of material mechanical properties and plate slenderness ratios on the nonlinear and cyclic behavior characteristics of metal shear panels (including carbon steel (CS), low yield point steel (LYP160) and aluminium (AL)), using the finite element method. The plates are first qualitatively and quantitatively classified into the five groups of very slender, slender, moderate, stocky and very stocky, regarding their slenderness ratios. Very slender plates have negligible buckling capacity and thus, they buckle at the initial stages of loading. Slender plates buckle in the elastic range of behavior. Moderate plates buckle in the inelastic range of stresses before material yielding occurs in the plates. Stocky plates buckle in the plastic (post-yield) range of stresses. The behavior of very stocky plates is only dominated by yielding phenomenon and they do not buckle during loading. Based on the statistical analysis of results, new relationships for estimation of inelastic and plastic buckling loads are also proposed. The cyclic analysis results show that the energy dissipation capability of very stocky/stocky/moderate plates is solely dependent on the material yield stress and elastic modulus of elasticity, whereas for the slender plates, the effectiveness of material yield stress in the energy dissipation of plates is decreased and the role of the material elastic modulus of elasticity becomes more important. In the case of very slender shear plates, the energy dissipation capability seems to be dependent on the initial and secondary modulus of material only.