Buckling and collapse analysis of a cracked panel under a sequence of tensile to compressive load employing a shell-solid mixed finite element modeling

The present study focuses on buckling and collapse behaviors of cracked steel panel by accounting for the crack opening/closure. A rectangular panel with a transverse through crack to the loading direction is selected to better understand the typical mechanical characteristics of a panel subjected to a sequence of tensile to compressive loading. When a tensile load is applied to the cracked panel, a through crack gradually opened and yielding occurs around the crack tip. When a compressive load is applied after the tensile load, the crack gradually closed and elastic/elasto-plastic buckling occur. A shell-solid mixed finite element (FE) model is adopted to effectively analyze the crack opening/closure. Shell FEs are employed in the rectangular panel (shell model), while solid FEs are partially adopted around the crack (solid model). Double nodes and contact condition are imposed on the crack face. The shell and solid models are joined together with a rigid body element (RBE). The buckling and collapse behaviors of the panel models under a sequence of tensile to compressive loading is critically examined, as well as its local behavior, i.e., crack opening displacement (COD) varying displacement amplitude, panel aspect ratio and panel thickness. The results show that the crack opening/closure strongly affect the buckling and collapse behaviors of the cracked panel.