Compressive strength of rectangular plates under biaxial load and lateral pressure

Equations are derived to assess the strength of plates subjected to biaxial compressive loans, including the effect of initial distortions and residual stresses. These equations are then extended to the case of simultaneous lateral pressure loads. In calibrating the proposed methods and in assessing their model uncertainty published results of experiments and of numerical calculations have been used. The proposed methods were shown to be unbiased as regards plate slenderness and aspect ratio. The model uncertainty of each method was quantified and thus can be used to derive design formulations with the desired level of safety.