Description

EBPlate is a piece of software developed by CTICM with a partial funding of the European Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS). It assesses the critical stresses associated to the elastic buckling of plates loaded in their plan.

The scope of the program is the following:

·         Plates : Rectangular plate with uniform thickness;

Isotropic or orthotropic behaviour.

 

·         Edges : Plate supported on its four edges for the out-of-plane direction (no free edge) ;

Three possible conditions for the rotation of the edges : free rotation, fixed edges or elastic restraint (defined by flexural and torsional stiffnesses).

 

·         Stiffening : Possible definition of several stiffeners in both longitudinal and transverse directions of the plate, with identical or different properties;

Axial, flexural and torsional rigidities of stiffeners are accounted for;

5 predefined types of stiffener cross-sections, which allow a direct definition from the dimensions;

Possible smearing of identical and regularly spaced stiffeners (orthotropic properties of the plate);

Specific treatment of stiffener with closed cross-section, for example trapezoidal sections.

 

·         Stresses : Stress pattern (s_x, s_y, t) acting in the plate;

Predefined stress patterns the parameters of are the stresses acting along the edges of the plate;

Possibility of generating any stress distribution by defining directly the stresses within the elements of a regular meshing of the plate;

Possibility to import the stress pattern from an other piece of software;

Possibility to impose one or more stress values at buckling state and to perform the buckling analysis on the remaining free stresses.

For the case defined by the User, EBPlate calculates the minimal factor f_cr, the critical factor, to be applied to the stresses to obtain the elastic buckling of the plate. The program can also find all the elastic buckling modes and their associated critical factor.

The critical stresses given by the piece of software are calculated according to the theory of the linear elastic buckling of idealized perfect plates, so that they are not the limit stresses of the real plate. These values are generally used to determine intermediate parameters, for example the reduced slenderness in Eurocode 3 Part 1.5, required in the formulae of ultimate resistance of cross-sections.

Numerous function are proposed with EBPlate, especially for the post-treatment of results: three-dimensional display of the buckling mode shape, edition of a calculation sheet, export of the mathematical function giving the shape of the buckling mode, remote use from an other program,...

Version

The last available version to be downloaded here is the 2.01.

Required space on disk: 22,3 Mo.

Operating systems

EBPlate V2.01 has been validated and runs on the following OS: Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Vista et Microsoft Windows Seven.

Support

All malfunction reports and questions relative to EBPlate can be transmitted by electronic mail to the following address: cticm@cticm.com, with the reference "EBPlate Support" in the object of the email. This will help to improve the piece of software.