Ultimate strength of a square plate with a longitudinal/transverse dent under axial compression

Thin shell structures are efficient structures because of their high load-carrying capacity and small weight. Thin plates are one of the common structural elements. Their load-carrying capacity mainly depends on their buckling behavior, which is in turn affected by the imperfections present in them. Dent is one of the common geometrical imperfections in thin shell structures, which may be formed in the plate as an impact of sharp objects, among other reasons. Using ANSYS nonlinear FEA, the present work conducts a numerical study of the effect of various dent parameters on the ultimate strength of a thin plate, with a longitudinal or a transverse dent located centrally on the plate, under uniaxial compressive loading with simply supported boundary conditions.