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Abstract

The main aim of the present work is to develop a valid empirical equation which can be used to determine the ultimate strength of the simply supported thin square plates (of common size 500×500 mm with variable plate thickness) having both initial imperfections and local geometric imperfections namely dent. Both the dent parameters (namely Dent Length (DL), Dent Aspect Ratio (DAR), Dent Depth (DD) and Dent Angle of Orientation (DAO)) and shell parameters (namely Slenderness Ratio (SLR) which accounts for both plate thickness and amplitude of half wave sinusoidal shape initial imperfections) are accounted to determine the ultimate strength of the dented thin square plates. By varying these parameters 2025 FE dented plate models (with a center dent) are generated and analyzed using non-linear FE analysis of ANSYS including both material and geometrical non-linearities to determine the ultimate strength of the dented plates. Using these ultimate strengths and coded input parameters of FE models, a valid response surface regression model-an empirical model is developed. The input parameters are coded to overcome the effect of different units of input parameters and their range.