All-steel structural panels to carry lateral load: Experimental and theoretical behaviour

A description is given of experimental tests on 15 steel panels, each fabricated by spot welding steel face plates onto a corrugated steel core to form a sandwich. This form of construction is being investigated with a view to its use as decking on offshore platforms. All the panels had plan dimensions of 2·1 m × 1 m and cores consisting of top-hat stiffeners of depth 60 mm, placed side by side. Each panel was tested by subjection to uniform lateral (z-direction) loading over its entire surface, firstly when simply supported along all boundaries and then when simply supported across its y-direction boundaries only. Of particular interest is the experimental verification of the theoretical prediction that uniformly loaded panels, simply supported along all edges, experience bending moments of opposite signs in the x- and y-directions. The experimental results show good agreement with theoretical predictions of deflection patterns, strains, and stresses.