ABSTRACT
This paper reports the results of experimental investigations on the scale effect of unstiffened steel plates subjected to lateral mass impact, which induces denting and fracture damage. Lateral impact tests were conducted on 27 unstiffened square plate models using a drop testing machine. The sizes of the model test areas were 600 × 600 mm, 800 × 800 mm, and 1,000 × 1,000 mm, giving a geometric scale ratio of 1.00 : 1.33 : 1.67. Three types of striker headers were used: knife-edge, hemisphere, and regular pyramid strikers. The chosen drop heights were 500, 1,000, and 1,500 mm, providing collision velocities of 3.13, 4.43, and 5.43 m/s, respectively. The knife-edge and hemisphere strikers generated denting damage, whereas the regular pyramid striker generated fracture damage. The lateral deformations were measured for the models with denting damage. However, for the fracture-damaged models, two diagonal lengths were measured. Numerical analyses were also performed to predict the extent of damage for all the tested models. The comparison results indicated a good correlation.
