This award provides funds to permit Dr. M. Arockiasamy, Department of Ocean Engineering, Florida Atlantic University, to pursue with Dr. N. E. Shanmugam, Department of Civil Engineering, National University of Singapore, for a period of 24 months, research on the behavior of stiffened steel plates subjected to the combined action of in-plane and lateral loading in offshore structures. Simplified methods will be developed for predicting the behavior of ultimate load carrying capacity of stiffened plates supported in the longitudinal direction or both in the longitudinal and transverse directions. Orthotropic plates will be analyzed using the energy method with an approximate deflection function. The effects of parameters such as plate width to thickness ratio, flexural and torsional properties of stiffeners, aspect ratio of stiffened plates, and the relative magnitudes of lateral and in- plane load on the behavior of stiffened plates also will be studied. The proposed analytical and experimental investigations will lead to a greater understanding of the behavior of stiffened plates under various load conditions and will contribute to the formulation of improved design recommendations for offshore structures. These recommendations, based on experimental and analytical work, will replace the empirical formulae currently being used for stiffened plates commonly adopted in ship and offshore structures. This project will provide for the PI access to ongoing research at the National University of Singapore, where the experimental research will be done. Both collaborators will be engaged in the analytical investigations which will be carried out at Florida Atlantic University. The collaborators are highly respected engineers who have published extensively in the field of the research. The present project will allow them to combine their talents and the resources of their respective laboratories in cooperative research on a problem of mutual interest and potential benefit to the United States and Singapore. This project is relevant to the objectives of the Science in Developing Countries Program which seeks to increase the level of cooperation between U.S. and developing country scientists and engineers through the exchange of scientific information, ideas, skills, and techniques and through collaboration on problems of mutual benefit.
